Punjab Kings batter Liam Livingstone’s cameo powered the franchise to their fifth win of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 season. The Punjab Kings defeated Gujarat Titans by eight wickets on Tuesday at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.
Liam Livingstone took on the Gujarat Titans’ lead pacer Mohammed Shami in the sixteenth over of the match. He slammed Shami for three consecutive sixes, and two consecutive boundaries, accumulating 24 runs in the overs. His six off the first ball of the over became the talking point of the match. Liam Livingstone cleared his front leg and swung his bat hard, to hit a monstrous, 117m six.
Following his six, the Gujarat Titans posted a hilarious tweet, with an image of Rashid Khan checking Liam Livingstone’s bat. They wrote, “Rashid bhai, spring maili?” (Rashid bhai, did you get the spring)
𝙍𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙙 𝙗𝙝𝙖𝙞, 𝙨𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙢𝙖𝙞𝙡𝙞? 😜 pic.twitter.com/GXu23pZ822
— Gujarat Titans (@gujarat_titans) May 3, 2022
Earlier in the match, Gujarat Titans set Punjab Kings a target of 144 runs in 20 overs on the back of Sai Sudarsan’s fifty. Kagiso Rabada was the pick of the bowlers for Punjab Kings with 4/33 in his four overs. In reply, the Punjab Kings chased down the total in 16 overs. Shikhar Dhawan and Bhanuka Rajapaksa stitched together an 87 runs partnership for the second wicket, after the early dismissal of Jonny Bairstow.
Bhanu Rajapaksa slammed 40 runs off 28 balls, including five boundaries and a six. Following his dismissal, Liam Livingstone walked out to bat. He remained not out on 30 runs off 10 balls, slamming two boundaries and three sixes. Along with Liam, Shikhar Dhawan too remained unbeaten on 62 runs.
It was a big win for us: Liam Livingstone
Punjab Kings batter Liam Livingstone expressed that the win against Gujarat Titans was important for the franchise. The Punjab Kings had lost their previous match against the Lucknow Super Giants and needed to get back to the winning ways. They are fifth on the points table with 10 points from as many games.
Following his 10-ball 30 runs knock, Livingstone said that he wanted to get some time out in the middle. He also praised Shikhar Dhawan and Bhanu Rajapaksa’s partnership. Liam said.
“Swinging hard enough. I didn’t think I was going to bat at one point, nice to go out and hit a few out the middle. I thought Shikhar played beautifully to set it up, and Bhanu with that partnership. It was a big win for us and we needed it, we have played some bad cricket in the last couple of games and it is nice to turn it around.”
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