Shikhar Dhawan equals Gautam Gambhir, Ajinkya Rahane in an unwanted IPL record, Only next to Parthiv Patel

PBKS captain Shikhar Dhawan had won the toss and chose to bowl first against Delhi in Dharamshala.

Punjab Kings (PBKS) captain Shikhar Dhawan equaled the record of Gautam Gambhir and Ajinkya Rahane in the ongoing IPL 2023 during his team’s match against Delhi Capitals (DC) on May 17, 2023, at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamsala.

Set a target of 214 to win the game and stay alive in the race for the playoffs, Punjab Kings opened with Shikhar Dhawa and Prabhsimran Singh, who was off a brilliant century in his last outing. He took the strike and played out a maiden in the first over.  

Shikhar Dhawan took the strike to his former India teammate Ishant Sharma in the second over and was out caught in the slips on the very first ball of the over. The ball was pitched on the Test match length, going across to Dhawan and the left-hander edged it to Aman Hakim Khan in the slips for a golden duck.

With this 10th score of zero, Dhawan equaled the record of most ducks in the Indian Premier League of Gautam Gambhir, and Ajinkya Rahane and is now in the second spot, behind Parthiv Patel, who has 11 ducks while opening the innings in IPL.

Here are the top five openers with the most ducks in IPL history:

11 - Parthiv Patel

10 - Shikhar Dhawan

10 - Gautam Gambhir

10 - Ajinkya Rahane

9 - David Warner   

Prithvi Shaw and Rilee Russouw hit half-centuries to propel DC to 213/2

Shikhar Dhawan had won the toss and chose to bowl first in Dharamshala. David Warner and Prithvi Shaw added 94 runs for the first wicket with the captain falling for 46 runs. Shaw made 54 in 38 balls, his first fifty this IPL 2023.

But the best knock came from Rilee Russouw who made 82* in 37 balls with 6 fours and 6 sixes and also added 65* runs with Phil Salt who slammed 26* in 14 balls to take DC to 213/2 in 20 overs.