Mar 25, 2025, 03:10 PM ET
Shashank Singh was only ten-balls old at the crease. At the other end, with one over to go in Punjab Kings’ innings against Gujarat Titans, was his captain Shreyas Iyer on 97. He was the set batter, having hit nine sixes, and he had never scored an IPL hundred.
But Shashank said he was told “to hit every ball for a four and a six,” and not to think about giving Shreyas strike. He did just that, scoring five fours to take 23 runs off the final over to lead PBKS to 243 for 5 in their IPL 2025 opener, a total that was only 11 runs too many for GT’s chase.
“I didn’t see the scoreboard to be very honest, but after the first ball I hit, I saw the scoreboard and Shreyas was on 97,” Shashank said after the match. “I was going to ask him if I should take a single or something but he only came and told me to not worry about his hundred. It takes a lot of heart and courage to say that because obviously hundreds don’t come easily in T20, especially in IPL. That gave me even more confidence.”
Iyer and Shashank added an unbeaten 81 off just 28 balls to help PBKS score 77 off the last four overs. Iyer, batting at No. 3 for the first time in the IPL since 2022, faced just four balls in the last three overs of the innings. Shashank scored 44 off 16, while Iyer finished unbeaten on 97 off 42.
“It’s a team game we all know, but then in those situations, it’s difficult to be that selfless but Shreyas was one,” Shashank, who began his domestic career with Mumbai before moving to Chhattisgarh, said. “I know him for the past 15 years, he is the same. He told me just to be calm, to play cricketing shots that I usually play, to maintain my balance and by God’s grace, I think we had a good finish.”
GT were faced with pulling off the second-highest chase in the IPL, but Sai Sudharsan kept them on course with 74 off 41 balls. Jos Buttler and Sherfane Rutherford also kept the big hits coming as GT scored 87 runs in the six overs between 9 and 14. The ask of 75 off 36 balls seemed achievable with heavy dew hindering the bowlers, until PBKS’ Impact Player Vijaykumar Vyshak bowled an incredible spell.
Vyshak conceded just ten runs in his first two overs, bowling ten dot balls, and PBKS strung together three overs without conceding a boundary. GT couldn’t recover from the slowdown
“Shreyas is someone who works on instincts as a captain. That’s why he’s one of the best captains in in in the world right now,” Shashank said. “Even I feel that that was the right time to get Vyshak and the way he bowled… in the bowling meeting, we usually plan all those things. So this was a planned thing. The way he executed the plan was commendable. Those were the hard overs he bowled because there was some dew.
“These are the moments you have to win. Vyshak came and he nailed it. It is very difficult to bowl those yorkers but he did his job to perfection and kudos to him.”
