Glenn Maxwell’s return to Punjab Kings after half a decade wasn’t that auspicious as he was dismissed for a duck against the Gujarat Titans. However, it was a good start for the Kings under the reunited duo of Shreyas Iyer and Ricky Ponting as they won a high-scoring thriller by 11 runs.
Glenn Maxwell’s wretched run in the IPL continued as after a poor season last year with the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), his return to the Punjab Kings wasn’t as auspicious getting dismissed for a duck against the Gujarat Titans on Tuesday, March 25 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Maxwell came in to bat at the fall of Azmatullah Omarzai’s wicket against R Sai Kishore and the Australian all-rounder went reverse-sweeping on the first delivery getting out LBW.
The replays showed the that ball would go on to miss the stumps but Maxwell chose not to review it and walked off after being dismissed for a golden duck. This was Maxwell’s 19th duck in the IPL, his 10th golden one and now has the most in the tournament’s history.
Rohit Sharma equalled Maxwell and Dinesh Karthik with his 18th duck during the CSK vs MI clash a couple of days ago but the Punjab Kings batter went past him and has the unwanted record in his name now.
Most ducks in the IPL for a batsman
19 – Glenn Maxwell (PBKS/RCB/DD/MI)
18 – Dinesh Karthik (KXIP/DD/KKR/RCB/MI/GL)
18 – Rohit Sharma (Deccan/MI)
16 – Piyush Chawla (CSK/MI/KXIP/KKR)
16 – Sunil Narine (KKR)
Those two wickets in the same over threatened to derail the Kings’ innings but captain Shreyas Iyer seemed like a man on a mission, wanting to take on each and every GT bowler and was successful in his plan, smashing an unbeaten 97 off just 42 balls. Iyer’s 81-run sixth wicket partnership with Shashank Singh off just 28 balls just took the game away from the Titans as even though the home team was on course to chase the total down but fell short by 11 runs.
With Iyer and Ricky Ponting reuniting as captain and coach after five seasons but for a different franchise, the Kings will hope that the duo can recreate the magic and go all the way. Because, as they say, well-begun is half the job done.
