"Cricket is turning into baseball," Punjab Kings skipper Sam Curran aptly summed up his team's T20 world record run chase of 262 against Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL in Kolkata on Friday. (As It Happened | Scorecard)
Led by Jonny Bairstow's incredible hundred, Punjab Kings set the new world record for the highest run chase in the history of T20 cricket as they went past KKR's 261/6 with eight wickets and eight balls to spare.
"Very pleasing. Most importantly the win, cricket has turned to baseball, isn't it? We're delighted with the two points," Curran said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
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"We had a tough few weeks as a team. Forget about the scores, we deserved this victory."
Asked about the massive scores being put up by teams this IPL season, Curran said, "Loads of different things, guys can hit balls for long periods, the coaches, training, the dew, dot balls become wide after reviews and you get the extra ball.
"Stats are going out of the window. For us, it's all about the small moments. With the ball also we hung in there."
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Speaking about Bairstow's unbeaten century and Shashank Singh's belligerent innings, he said, "Really pleased for Jonny, he's been on tour for a long time and was eager to score.
"Shashank, wow, he was promoted to No. 4 and he's been our find of the season. We've to enjoy the small wins, although this was a big win coming to Kolkata."
Player of the Match Bairstow said he aimed to whack the ball as far as possible and the opening partnership of 93 in six overs was crucial for the visiting side.
"We got off to a good start and that was key. They got a flier themselves thanks to Sunil so we knew we had to go ballistic in the powerplay," Bairstow said.
"When you've to chase 200-plus you've to take risks in the powerplay. (How to approach such a chase?) Try and whack it as hard as possible (laughs). It was a case of if it's in your area you go after it. We wanted to lose as few wickets as possible.
The Englishman praised Shashank for how has been batting this season and in this match.
"Shashank has done it all season, a lovely guy and a special player. To have someone like him coming in and do that is unbelievable. His knowledge, he's not young either, he's nice and calm, full credit to him the way he came out and hit it cleanly."
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PBKS bettered South Africa's 259/4 against West Indies in March last year. In the IPL, Rajasthan Royals held the previous record for chasing down 224 against KKR at Eden Gardens recently, equalling the record they had set against then Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) in 2020 in Sharjah.
KKR captain Shreyas Iyer said, "The way the batters batted was tremendous. So much you ask of them and they delivered. Both teams played tremendously. You have to go back to the drawing board and see where you went wrong.
"Not defending hurts but it's a great lesson for the players," Iyer said.
