IPL 2024: Shashank Singh reveals MS Dhoni's tips after winning match for PBKS vs GT

Shashank Singh hit his maiden IPL fifty against Gujarat Titans on Thursday.

Shashank Singh turned disaster into opportunity when he played a match-winning knock for Punjab Kings (PBKS) against Gujarat Titans on April 4 in the ongoing IPL 2024. The match was played in Ahmedabad and saw the visitors snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

Shikhar Dhawan won the toss and decided to bowl first. Shubman Gill’s captain’s knock propelled GT to 199/4. Gill scored 89*, with 6 fours and 4 sixes. He had assistance from Kane Williamson (26), Sai Sudharsan (33 in 19 balls), and Rahul Tewatia (23* in 8 balls). For PBKS, Kagiso Rabada took two wickets.

In response, Umesh Yadav dismissed PBKS captain Shikhar Dhawan for just one run. Then Afghanistan’s Noor Ahmad and Azmatullah Omarzai picked up key wickets of Jonny Bairstow (22), Prabhsimran Singh (35), and Sam Curran.

It came down to 41 runs off 18 balls for PBKS, and that’s when Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma teamed together to take the GT bowlers apart. After Jitesh Sharma had taken Rashid Khan to the cleaners with 16 in 8 balls, Ashutosh hit a brilliant 31 in 17 balls.

Ashutosh and Shashank Singh contributed 43 runs for the seventh wicket, with Shashank remaining unbeaten on 61 in 29 balls, including 6 fours and 4 sixes. PBKS won the game in the final over, with three wickets in hand.

“Whenever I have talked with Mahi Bhai…”- Shashank Singh after his Player of the Match performance for PBKS

Shashank Singh hit his maiden IPL fifty and was named the Player of the Match as well. Shashank played a mature innings, standing tall to the end and leading his team home in the final over. When asked if MS Dhoni influenced his approach to the game, the batter recognized the Indian legend’s impact.

“Whenever I have talked with Mahi Bhai (MS Dhoni), he always told me to take the game as deep as possible. He said when you take the game deep, the pressure on the bowler is as much as on the batter. It’s about who keeps the nerve calm. It is all about the mental thing to be as calm as possible.. I was doing deep breathing to keep myself calm and react to the ball. Sometimes you be over-smart and play rash shots, but I was just looking to react to the ball” Shashank said during a media interaction.

Ashutosh and Shashank hailing from Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh – two adjacent states of Central India, helped in Punjab’s victory and the former said the duo had confidence in each other.

“I was talking with Ashutosh Sharma and he was talking with me in the middle. I was telling him if we were till the end, we would win the match. We were complementing each other very well and we had the belief in each other. We also have practiced with the same scenarios of scoring 50-60 runs in four or five overs, which came into play as well. We have done it before in the practice games, and we believed each other,” Shashank added.

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