The 8th match of the ongoing IPL 2023 took place between Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings at Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati where Punjab Kings won by 5 runs. Put into bat first, Punjab Kings posted a huge total of 197 on board in 20 overs, courtesy of Prabhsimran’s 60 and Shikhar Dhawan’s blistering 86.

While chasing, Rajasthan got a poor start where the openers failed to contribute much. Sanju Samson scored 42 whereas Shimron Hetmyer and Dhruv Juyel’s quick contributions helped them to reach 192 after 20 overs, eventually losing the contest as well.

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Here is what the captains and the player of the match said after the game:

Shikhar Dhawan, the PBKS captain said as quoted by Cricbuzz: “There were some nervous moments, I was trying to keep my calm and discussing plans with my bowlers. Was happy with the score we put up. We scoring 197 and my bowlers giving those early wickets and then Nathan came in and bowled supebly. It was a full team effort. These 2 games we got a great start, Prabh did really well and I tried my best to increase my strike-rate. We want to keep the momentum going as we got a good batting line-up. We respect the opponents’ bowlers but want to keep the intent and aggression going.”

Sanju Samson, the RR captain said as quoted by Cricbuzz: “To be honest, it was a very good track to bat on, not much movement with the new ball and they batted really well, had the momentum in the powerplay. Our bowlers used the variations on a high-scoring wicket and I thought we did well to restrict them to 197. Jos wasn’t fully fit (injured his finger while taking the catch), the thinking behind keeping Padikkal (in the middle order) was to tackle their two spinners in the middle overs. The coaches have put a lot of work behind him (on Dhruv Jurel), we had a work week camp before the IPL, but the way they have worked a lot of time in our academies (during off-season), having faced 1000s of balls and I’m happy with the way they’re progressing. I was expecting the dew to come in the second innings, but it was evident that it was there right at the start, need to be prepared better for such things in the next game.”

Nathan Ellis, Player of the Match said as quoted by Cricbuzz: “Just stoked to get the win, pleased to get some awards but from a team’s point of view nice to get that win. In T20 every ball counts, staying in the moment is really the key. When I was bowling in the backend, I was trying to get my variations right and calculate what the best ball is at that time. For me it’s cross-seam and it worked out really well tonight.”

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Sam Curran said as quoted by Cricbuzz: “I think when it comes to this situations, it is do or die. If you know the yorker, you got to use it. Some days it would work and some days it won’t. They changed their ball during the end of their innings. But we weren’t able to. I was with Prabhsimran four years back with Punjab. Happy to sit in the dug out when it comes to batting. All that matters is we won. Amazingly hard to bowl with the wet ball. It is incredibly hard to hold the seam. It is naturally hard to bowl a yorker with a cross seam.”