Punjab Kings Opener Shikhar Dhawan struck a mature 88 not out (9 fours and 2 sixes) to help the Punjab Kings beat the Chennai Super Kings by 11 runs at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai on Monday, April 25, night.
PBKS made a slow start after being sent in to bat and their Captain Mayank Agarwal's struggles this season continued as he was out in the sixth over for 18 off 21 balls.
Punjab reached 37 for 1 after the Powerplay; Shikhar Dhawan, playing his 200th IPL game, batting sensibly.
The 36-year-old left-hander started slowly, dealing in ones and twos, but opened up his arms to hit CSK nspinner Maheesh Theekshana for a superb six in the 6th over.
After he lost Agrawal, Dhawan found an able ally in Bhanuka Rajapaksa.
He dispatched Mukesh Choudhary for two superb boundaries off successive deliveries and repeated the act a ball later, shuffling across the stumps and chipping away a delivery sent down the leg side as he struck his second fifty of the season in 37 deliveries, hitting five fours and one six.
The Dhawan-Rajapaksa pair kept hammering CSK's bowling attack as they notched up a century stand off 63 balls on a wicket where the ball was not coming easy to the bat.
Dhawan also struck Dwayne Bravo for two successive fours, the first off a free hit after the bowler landed the first delivery of his over outside the return crease attempting to bowl a wide yorker.
Rajapaksa, who was dropped twice -- when he was on 1 by Ruturaj Gaikwad and also on 5 -- scored 42 off 32 deliveries, hitting two fours and two sixes as the duo frustrated the CSK bowlers for a long stretch in the innings.
Dhawan and Rajapaksa took PBKS from 37/1 to 147/1 before the Sri Lankan was caught by Shivam Dube off Bravo.
Next in, Liam Livingstone struck a few lusty blows scoring 19 runs off 7 deliveries with the help of a four and two sixes to swell the Punjab total.
Dhawan continued to hit his powerful shots at the other end. In the 19th over, he struck Dwaine Pretorius for a neat four over short fine leg and also planted Bravo into the stands over the short leg-side boundary for a six.
Punjab finished at 187/4 in 20 overs, thanks to Dhawan's well-controlled innings.
It was also a day of milestones for Dhawan as he became only the second batter in the IPL after Virat Kohli to amass 6,000 runs in the league.
In another milestone for the southpaw, he reached the milestone of 9,000 runs in T20s in the sixth over.
Overall, the day belonged to Shikhar Dhawan!
