Dharamsala (Himachal Pradesh) [India], May 5 : After his side's 28-run defeat against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 on Sunday, Punjab Kings (PBKS) pacer Harshal Patel said they need to play good cricket in the upcoming matches.
Harshal picked up three wickets and gave 24 runs in his four-over spell at an economy rate of 6.00. He removed Dhoni for a golden duck in the fifth ball of the 19th over.
While speaking at the post-match press conference, Harshal said they are still in the race to qualify for the playoffs. He added it can happen only when they start playing "high-quality" cricket in IPL 2024.
"We just need to play good cricket. In terms of the playoff race, in 13 years of playing IPL, I have never seen a team out of the playoffs race or qualified before 13-14 games are done. We are still in the race and as a team, we know when we play high-quality cricket and everyone knows their job well, we know we can beat any team on any ground," Harshal was quoted in a release from Punjab Kings as saying.
The pacer praised Prabhsimran Singh and Shashank Singh for helping PBKS recovering in the second inning after losing two quick wickets.
"I think with that opening spell, we were still in the game when Prabhsimran Singh and Shashank Singh were batting. Even though we lost two early wickets, we recovered with Prabhsimran and Shashank in the middle during the powerplay. I think we were quite settled at that point. If we had made better choices on which bowlers to target, we could have a different conclusion to the game," he added.
Summarizing the match, PBKS won the toss and elected to field first. CSK lost their wickets at regular intervals. It was knocks from Ravindra Jadeja (43), Ruturaj Gaikwad (32) and Daryl Mitchell (30) that took CSK to a respectable 167/9 in their 20 overs.
Rahul Chahar (3/23) and Harshal Patel (3/24) were the pick of the bowlers for PBKS. Arshdeep Singh got two wickets while Sam Curran got a wicket too.
In the run-chase, PBKS lost two wickets early, with Tushar Deshpande (2/35) striking for Men in Yellow, but Prabhsimran Singh (30) and Shashank Singh (27) helped them recover with a 53-run partnership. However, Ravindra Jadeja (3/20), Mitchell Santner (1/10) and Simarjeet Singh (2/16) helped CSK make a stunning comeback and restrict Punjab to 139/9 in their 20 overs.
Jadeja received the 'Player of the Match' performance for his three wickets and a knock of 43.
CSK has gone up to third place in the points table with six wins and five losses, giving them 12 points. PBKS is in the eighth spot with four wins, seven losses and just eight points.