NEW DELHI:
Ashutosh Sharma
's impressive performance wasn't enough as the Mumbai Indians defeated the Punjab Kings by nine runs in an Indian Premier League match on Thursday. In pursuit of a challenging target of 193 runs, young star Ashutosh delivered a career-defining innings, scoring a blistering 61 off just 28 balls to keep Punjab Kings in the contest until the very end.
Shashank Singh
also contributed 41 runs from 25 balls for PBKS, but they were eventually bowled out for 183 in 19.1 overs.
Punjab Kings captain
Sam Curran
lauded Ashutosh and Shashank's efforts against the five-time champions Mumbai Indians and said the two batters have incredible confidence.
"Another close one, I think this team likes a close one, but unfortunately another loss. Another incredible knock from the young guy (on Ashutosh), but another close loss. It's very tough, you want to lose close games rather than getting absolutely thumped, but we've lost a lot of wickets at the start, the way the younger guys have taken the team so close is heartening (on Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma)," Curran said after the match.
"They (Shashank and Ashutosh) have incredible confidence, you see a guy like Ashutosh having the confidence to play the sweeps and the big hits against pacers, it's so great to watch them in action. It's disheartening to lose close games, but there are a lot of positives in this team. We still have the belief in us, we believe we can turn this around, the sun will come up tomorrow and we will hopefully get on a winning run," Curran said.
This was the fifth defeat, the third in a row, for Punjab Kings in 7 matches. They are eight in the points tally.
Punjab Kings will next face Gujarat Titans on Sunday.
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