The battle for a spot in the final is heating up. Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore are going head-to-head in the first qualifier. The team that wins today will secure a spot in the final.
Punjab Kings got off to a rocky start. Openers struggled to get going. Priyansh Ary scored just 7 runs. Josh Inglis didn’t fare much better, managing only 4 runs. Captain Shreyas Iyer had a disappointing outing, scoring just 2 runs. Prabhsimran Singh added 18 runs before getting out. Nehal Wadhera and Shashank Singh didn’t contribute much either, scoring 8 and 3 runs respectively.
With 6 wickets down and just 60 runs on the board, Punjab Kings brought in Musheer Khan as an impact player. This was his IPL debut. Fans expected him to play smart and bail the team out. But Musheer failed to deliver. He got out without scoring a single run, lbw to Suyash Sharma. Punjab Kings ended up with a disappointing total of 101 runs.
Twitter was buzzing with reactions to Musheer’s debut. One user posted a video, questioning Virat Kohli’s behavior when Musheer was batting. “Did anyone else notice the (probable) lip-sync and gestures from Virat Kohli when Musheer Khan was taking guard?” the tweet read. Another user simply stated, “Impact player Musheer Khan gone for 3 ball Duck. PBKS will be one bowler less in second inning.”
Other fans were more brutal in their assessment. “Stupid stupid batting from Punjab Kings – trying to hoick from ball 1. 3 ball duck for Musheer Khan,” one user tweeted. Despite the criticism, Musheer’s debut will be remembered as a learning experience for the young player.
The pressure is on for Punjab Kings to bounce back from this disappointing performance. Will they be able to turn their game around and make it to the final? Only time will tell.