Prabhsimran, Harpreet Keep Punjab In Hunt

The IPL has done well to unveil some bright talent from the India's backcountry.

• Scorecard

We've had Rinku Singh and Yashaswi Jaiswal who have made waves this IPL and on Saturday, May 13, 2023, night another young Indian made fans take notice of his talent -- this time with his maiden IPL ton.

Prabhsimran Singh has played a couple of good knocks this season, but on Saturday he was on fire!

On a pitch that was slow, Prabhsimran showed how big runs can be scored irrespective of the nature of the surface.

Be it pacer or spinner, he took his chances and played some impeccable shots to collect his runs in boundaries and maximums. When joined by Sam Curran, the duo rotated the strike the first few overs before he decided it was time to up the ante.

He smashed Mitchell Marsh for 21 runs in the 12th over and kept the runs flowing there on.

He stepped out, cut the ball through the off side and pulled the ball as well as slog sweeping the spinners to reveal his skill set. He got to his 50 in 42 balls while building a stand of 68 runs to resurrect Punjab's innings.

His six-hitting was spectacular, sending the ball deep distances, a testimony of his strength and skill. He made most of the reprieve he was given when on 68 to get to his maiden IPL century off 63 balls in the 18th over.

He was eventually out for 103, but not before doing the job for his team.

With a win to stay in the reckoning for the playoffs, Punjab needed a win. Their ambitions received an early jolt with DC Openers David Warner and Phil Salt giving the team a flyer while chasing 168 for a win.

Warner in particular was severe, smashing the ball all over the park. At the end of the Powerplay, DC were nicely placed at 65 for no loss until Harpreet Brar was given the ball.

Brar was hammered in his opening over, but made amends when he got the first breakthrough to take out Phil Salt. That one wicket created mayhem for DC who lost 6 wickets in a heap.

Brar was the wrecker in chief, picking four wickets: Salt, Warner, Rilee Rossouw and Manish Pandey.

He bowled well in tandem with Rahul Chahar who was equally effective and picked two wickets.

Brar bowled with patience and bowled fuller length balls to have more wicket-taking chances on the slow surface. He got a few to turn, like the one with which he had Pandey bowled for a duck, but he mainly kept it simple and it reaped rewards.

He finished with figures of 4 for 30 to play a pivotal role in Punjab's much needed win. They now go up to 6th in the points table to stay in the hunt for a play-offs spot.

• IPL 2023