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After Punjab Kings pulled off a historic run chase against Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL 2024, the captain Sam Curran wondered whether cricket is turning into baseball during the post-match celebration. His comments came after PBKS overhauled the 262-run target set by KKR, which was also the highest successful run chase in the history of T20 cricket.
Notably, after winning the toss, Sam Curran, the captain of Punjab Kings, sent the opposition into bat first at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. The opening pair of KKR, Sunil Narine and Phil Salt went on a rampage from the get-go, scoring fifties while stitching together a first-wicket stand of 138 runs in just under 11 overs.
The rest of the batters, including the likes of the captain Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, and Andre Russell, chipped in with quick-fire cameos to help propel the Kolkata Knight Riders total to 261/6 in their allotted overs. In response, Jonny Bairstow and Prabhsimran Singh smashed the KKR bowling lineup to all parts of the ground in the powerplay, scoring 93 runs to set up the run chase.
Although Riley Rossouw was dismissed for a brief cameo in the 20s, it was Shashank Singh, who took over the responsibility of taking PBKS home, scoring 68 off 28, an innings which included eight maximums. In the meantime, Jonny Bairstow notched up his second hundred in the IPL, staying at the crease till the very end to help his team get over the line with eight balls to spare.
Cricket is turning into baseball: Sam Curran
Following the completion of the highest successful run chase in IPL history, Sam Curran spoke about how cricket isn’t what it used to be, during the post-match presentation. He said, as per ESPNcricinfo, “Cricket is turning into baseball, isn't it? It was absolutely incredible.”
“Where do we (start)? Absolutely delighted with two points. Games like that are out of the world, but most importantly we've had a tough few weeks as a team (this was the Kings' first win in five games) but we've really hung in there. We've taken teams down to the wire and, I think, forget about the scores... I thought we actually deserved victory,” the captain of Punjab Kings added.