IPL23 match no 8 PBKS vs RR this match Punjab king won by 5 runs. Nathan Ellis (Player of the Match): "Ah, yeah, oneof those days, where you can bowl potentiallynot to your best but get rewards. Probably someother guys on the side, deserve awards but stokedto get some rewards. Nice one to get it.To do ball by ball. It's more about one ball at atime. Iam not some who will get swiped aboutwhat to bowl in the fifth over or in the 10th over.In T20I cricket, every ball counts. It's more to bein the moment, easier said than done.You wanna try to focus on drying the ball. The ballwas wet and the best way to get to do was to bowlcross seam. That was my percentage ball. Veryhappy to see Sam get us over the line."Shikhar Dhawan (Punjab Kings Captain): "Yes,absolutely there were nervous moments. ButI was keeping calm and discussed with thebowlers about the plan. There was dew, you haveto respect that. I am happy with the total weput on the board. We scored 197 and then Ourbowlers gave us early wickets before Nathan Elliscame and bowled wel. It was a full team effort.Switch Hit (haha, replies to the question aboutthe turning point in the game). I doing my bestto increase the strike rate. This time we have gota big batting lineup. These two games we wereplaying well. Starting with Prabhsimran Singh andthen Iplayed according to the situation. We willtry to keep the momentum going with intent andSam Curran (Punjab Kings): "When it comes tothose situations you just gotta do or die. If youknow your yorker, youre gonna be okay but if youdon't then those are the moments you practicefor. When you got such quality hitters and newrule as well where the batters keep coming.Iguess its those moments you wanna be in.Somedays it would work and somedays it won'tbut luckily we won today.It was strange how they changed their ball in thefirst innings when it was a little bit wet and I wastrying to get our ball changed but I don't knowhow it really works when they can change theirball and we can't. Iguess we have to get on withit and sory for slowing the play down with the tailbut that's what happened.Prabhsimran has been amazing. I was with him atPunjab four years ago. He was very young and heis still young. The way he has been playing withShikhar is amazing and the team got off to a gooastart. Hope its a start of a great campaign for himand hopefully the runs keep coming because heis an amazing player.Well I guess the way we batted there I was happyjust sitting in the dugout when the boys werebatting beautifully.I was ready to go. There'sgames where I will go up and there will be gameswhere I won't so all that matters and we Won ourWell I guess the way we batted there I was happyjust sitting in the dugout when the boys werebatting beautifully. I was ready to go. There'sgames where I will go up and there will be gameswhere I won't so all that matters and we won ourfirst two games is which we came here to do.Its amazingly hard. You try and dip balls in waterand train with it. In India the dew is very big in allgrounds so its incredibly hard to hold the searYou try to geta cross seam but that's not a naball to bowl a yorker so maybe its somethingto work on. Its extremely tough but everyone'sIts amazingly hard. You try and dip balls in waterand train with it. In India the dew is very big in allgrounds so its incredibly hard to hold the seam.You try to geta cross seam but that's not a naturalball to bowla yorker so maybe its somethingto work on. Its extremely tough but everyone'sgotta doit so that's no real complaining. We justgotta keep getting better because the batters andbowlers are getting better. That's why this is thebest tournament in the World."Rajasthan Royals won the toss and decided tobowl first in the maiden IPL game at Guwahati.Punjab Kings' opening batters came out all gunsblazing to destroy the new ball bowlers of RRconsisting of Trent Boult, and KM Asif, and it wasespecially Prabhsimran Singh with the assault.The swashbuckling batter carved away 7 foursand 3 sixes to his maiden IPL fifty in a blink ofan eye and scored 60 off 34 balls. He was thefirst one to go as Jos Buttler tooka screamer inthe bowling of Jason Holder. Before getting oPrabhsimran and Shikhar Dhawan blistered90 runs for the opening wicket, with the latterHowever, Dhawan hit a ball hard straight intothe team's previous match hero, BhanukaRajapaksa's hand and the victim left the fieldstraightaway, playing no further part in the game.But Dhawan batted through the innings and wasunbeaten at 86 off 56 balls, including 9 foursand 3 sixes, which helped the side post a totalof nearly 200. In the process of this responsibleinnings, the Punjab skipper achieved a rare featof becoming only the third batter in the historIPL to score 50 fifty-plus knocks.Amidst this, Jitesh Sharma played a handycameo of 27 off 16 deliveries, adding 68 runsalongside Dhawan. PBKS lost a couple of quickwickets in a span of a few deliveries betweenthe 16th and 17th over. While Jitesh was takencare of by Yuzvendra Chahal, Sikandar Raza wasbamboozled bya brilliant carrom ball deliveredby Ravichandran Ashwin to get bowled out.Shahrukh Khan (11 off 10) didn't get going togive PBKS a powerful finish but had a decentpartnership with Dhawan of 37 runs for the fourthwicket, with the latter shifting his gears as PunjabKings posted 197/4 in their allotted 20 overs.For RR, while the rest of the bowlers- Boult, Asifand Chahal were taken to the cleaners, JasonHolder and Ashwin bowled terrific spells stoppingthe momentum of the opposition in the midd'-overs besides scalping three wickets betweerthem.In what was a drama-filled run chase from RR,they failed to chase the game despite comingclose to the target. To everyone's surprise, RaviAshwin opened the batting with Yashasvi Jaiswalinstead of Jos Buttler. Though Jaiswal hammereda couple of glorious shots, his stay was short atthe crease. Arshdeep Singh made the new ballcount by dismissing both the openers withoutmuch on the board.Coming at number three, Buttler (19 off 11)clubbed a few but he too as Jaiswal cannot takethe innings deeper and fell in a streaky mannerto Nathan Ellis, who hada dream day with theball in hand as he decimated RR with his superbspell of 4-0-30-4. It included the wickets of SanjuSamson, Devdutt Padikkal and Riyan Parag apartfrom the wicket of Jos the Boss. Though thesedidn't come at regular intervals, Ellis struck atcrucial junctures of the match to push the horside onto the back foot.With 74 runs needed off the final five overs, Jurel(32* off 15) and Hetmyer (36 off 18) lifted theirside and gave them a chance in the match bysmashing the bowlers left right and centre with aquick-fire 62-run partnership for the 7th wicket.But with the run out of Hetmyer in the third ballof the last over bowled by the tournament'sexpensive buy Sam Curran, RR's hopes almostdied. Curran bowled well and conceded just 10runs off the last over and restricting the hosts *-192/7 to win two in two games.