IPL 2022, PBKS vs CSK, Top Performances: Livingstone's all-round hand (60 & 2-25) helps Punjab win

IPL 2022, PBKS vs CSK, Top Performances: Liam Livingstone's all-round hand (60 & 2-25), Vaibhav Arora's 2-21 and Shivam Dube's 57 are the top performances.

Liam Livingstone's all-round hand (60 & 2-25) helps PBKS win (Images ©BCCI/IPL)

Brief Scores: PBKS 180 for eight (Livingstone 60, Jitesh Sharma 26, Jordan 23/2, Pretorius 30/2) beat CSK 126 all-out (Dube 57, Rahul Chahar 25/3, Livingstone 25/2) by 54 runs

Player of the match: Liam Livingstone (60 off 32 balls & 25/2)

After two losses upfront in this season of Indian Premier League (IPL), Ravindra Jadeja-led Chennai Super Kings (CSK) clashed heads with Punjab Kings (PBKS) who have won one match out of two in this season of IPL.

In the head-to-head, CSK had an upper hand with 15 wins against 9 wins of Punjab Kings before heading into this game.

Punjab Kings (PBKS) registered second win of the season

CSK skipper Jadeja won the toss and opted to field first. Their opening pacer Mukesh Choudhary proved his captain’s decision right by sending explosive opener Mayank Agarwal to the dugout on a meagre personal score of four. Punjab also lost one down batter Bhanuka Rajapaksa, however, Liam Livingstone and opener Shikhar Dhawan built up a vital partnership of 95 runs for the third wicket. Due to a half-century of Livingstone and vital knocks by Dhawan and Jitesh Sharma, Punjab managed to reach a remarkable total of 180 runs in 20 overs.

While chasing the target of 181 runs, CSK lost half of the team in just eight overs due to the phenomenal bowling of Vaibhav Arora, Kagiso Rabada, Arshdeep Singh and Odean Smith. All-rounder Shivam Dube and MS Dhoni tried to rescue their side, however, they could never reach any close to the target. Punjab wrapped up CSK on just 126 in 18 overs to win the game by a big margin of 54 runs.

Punjab Kings reached the fourth spot in the IPL points table with two wins and one loss this season, whereas CSK went to the second last position in the table with three straight losses.

Read More: IPL 2022, KKR vs PBKS, Top Performances: Russell's 70* hands KKR second win after Umesh's 4-23

Let’s take a look at the top three performances from the CSK vs PBKS game, IPL 2022.

Liam Livingstone rescues Punjab Kings with explosive fifty

England all-rounder Liam Livingstone is popular for attacking batting in T20 leagues across the world. However, he is yet to make an impact in IPL. But that’s a story of before today as Livingstone delivered for his side when it needed him the most. Punjab lost two wickets early in the first two overs, Livingstone came to bat in the middle and put pressure back on the opponent bowlers by smashing one six and one four off young pacer Mukesh Choudhary. He kept his carnage on against Choudhary to clobber two humongous sixes and three boundaries to garner a staggering 26 runs in an over.

After watching Livingstone pummelling opponent bowlers, his partner Dhawan also changed gears to smash two fours and one six off Dwayne Bravo. Livingstone continued to play his shots and completed his first IPL fifty off just 27 deliveries by smoking a huge six off Bravo. However, left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja picked his wicket as Ambati Rayudu grabbed the catch at slip. Livingstone made 60 runs off just 32 deliveries with the help of five boundaries and five gigantic sixes

Vaibhav Arora makes his IPL debut and takes 2-21 against CSK (Images ©BCCI/IPL)

Vaibhav Arora shines on IPL debut for CSK

Young pacer Vaibhav Arora who plays for Himachal Pradesh at the first-class level made his IPL debut for CSK today. Arora opened the bowling for CSK and bagged the wicket of Robin Uthappa in his second over only. In the third over of Arora, Moeen Ali edged and bowed out on duck, which left CSK in a precarious condition of 22 for three, while chasing a huge target of 181 runs.

CSK couldn’t stop this batting collapse and lost two more wickets in the next three overs. Chennai's innings could never take off after such a huge batting collapse which was started by Arora and Kagiso Rabada. Thus, Arora made a memorable IPL debut by taking two wickets after conceding only 21 runs in his quota of four overs.

Read More: IPL 2022, LSG vs CSK, Top Performances: Lewis' 55*, Quinton's 61, Bishnoi's 2-24 hand LSG first win

Shivam Dube scores half century (57 runs) against Punjab Kings (Images ©BCCI/IPL)

Shivam Dube led Chennai Super Kings’ fightback

Chennai Super Kings lost nearly the whole batting order in just eight overs in the chase. Protea pacer Kagiso Rabada dismissed opener Ruturaj Gaikwad on a paltry personal score of one run in just the second over of the innings. Bowling partner of Rabada, young pacer Vaibhav Arora cleaned up two batters on his IPL debut in his first two overs. Also, skippers Jadeja and Rayudu got out early.

CSK got reduced to a beggarly condition of 36 for two, however, Shivam Dube bailed out the team along with former skipper MS Dhoni. Dube took his time to settle down and pummelled one boundary and one six off pacer Odean Smith. He sent premier pacer Rabada to the cleaners by smashing two sixes in an over. He completed his half-century in just 26 deliveries. However, he got out on a personal score of 57, as Arshdeep Singh picked his catch at short third man.

What’s to come

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) will play their second match in this season of IPL against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and look to register their first win. The game is scheduled to be held on April 4 at 19.30 hours IST.

Here are some of the top twitter reactions from CSK vs PBKS game, IPL 2022:

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