PBKS vs SRH: Shashank Singh-Ashutosh Sharma hailed on Twitter for fighting hard for Punjab Kings

After leading their team to a thrilling victory in the previous match against Gujarat Titans with their partnership of 43 runs, Shashank Singh and Ashutosh nearly replicated another remarkable run chase against Sunrisers Hyderabad but fell just short as Punjab Kings suffered a narrow 2-run defeat on Tuesday (April 9) in IPL 2024 match at Mullanpur.

Requiring 67 runs off the last four overs, SRH were in a commanding position. However, the stars of Punjab's previous match, Ashutosh Sharma and Shashank Singh, showed great determination to keep their team in the hunt.

They came together in the 16th over with their team needing 68 runs off 33 balls and immediately made their intentions clear. Shashank Singh smashed three boundaries off Bhuvneshwar Kumar in one over, adding 17 runs to the total.

Meanwhile, his partner Ashutosh Sharma hit consecutive fours off Pat Cummins in the 18th over to maintain their team's chances. Despite conceding a couple of boundaries, Natarajan bowled tightly in the penultimate over, giving away just 10 runs.

With 29 runs required from the final over bowled by Jaidev Unadkat, it turned out to be a dramatic one - with three dropped catches (two of them resulting in sixes), three wides, and three sixes.

Despite the efforts of Shashank and Ashutosh, PBKS fell short, finishing at 180/6, thus losing by a narrow margin of 2 runs. Shashank remained unbeaten on 46* off 25 balls, while Ashutosh finished not out on 33 off 15.

Earlier, after losing three wickets in the powerplay, SRH managed to post a total of over 180 runs, courtesy of Nitish Reddy's maiden half-century and some valuable contributions from Abdul Samad and Shahbaz Ahmed.

In response, PBKS also struggled against the swinging new ball. Bhuvneshwar bowled an excellent opening over, resulting in Jonny Bairstow being bowled by Cummins. Bhuvneshwar then dismissed Prabhsimran Singh and Shikhar Dhawan in his next two overs, leaving Punjab reeling at their lowest powerplay total of the season (27/3).

Although Sam Curran played a few aggressive shots, his innings was cut short by T Natarajan, thanks to a brilliant catch by Cummins. Sikandar Raza fell while attempting a premeditated scoop shot, and Jitesh Sharma failed to make a significant contribution.

But the effort from the uncapped duo of Shashank and Ashutosh was applauded by experts and fans for their finishing skills in the death overs. Here's what users had to say on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Senior commentator Harsha Bhogle posted on X, "Ashutosh and Shashank, one of the best double acts in the Tata IPL."

Former India cricketer Robin Uthappa wrote on X,"Oh boy!! What a thriller this turned out to be 🤌🏾 Kudos to Ashutosh and Shashank for their effort. Took it down to the wire but fell just short!!"

Former India cricketer-turned-commentator, Aakash Chopra hailed the young batters and urged the foreign coaches to take them seriously.

To another user, their batting in the death overs reminded Rinku Singh whose last over heroics against Gujarat Titans on this day last year.

"Exactly 1 year ago, we witnessed Rinku Singh's madness. What a tribute it would have been, had Ashutosh Sharma and Shashank Singh pulled off those 29 runs in the last over," wrote a Twitter user.

Another user posted on Twitter, "Ashutosh Sharma and Shashank Singh's stocks in the mega auctions keep rising with every ball they face. A good finisher is hard to find and PBKS have unearthed two here. It will be stupid if they can't retain at least one of these two."

Then some trolled international stars in the Punjab Kings batting line-up for not living up to the expectations while two uncapped players doing everything they possibly could to help their team win.

Harsha Bhogle tweeted in support of SRH left-arm pacer Jaidev Unadkat.