Mullanpur, Apr 19, 2024, IANS

Mullanpur, April 19 (IANS) Sam Curran, the stand-in skipper of Punjab Kings, said he was happy to see Ashutosh Sharma play yet another incredible knock for the side and felt his team did very well in coming close to chasing down 193 against Mumbai Indians.

At the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, PBKS were in trouble of damaging their net run rate massively when they were reduced to 14/4 and later at 77/6 in the chase.

After Shashank Singh hit a 25-ball 41, Ashutosh slammed a whirlwind 25-ball 61 and was on his way to almost single-handedly winning the game for PBKS out of nowhere. But once he fell to Gerald Coetzee in the 18th over, PBKS were eventually dismissed for 183 in 19.1 overs, with the hosts consigned to their fourth defeat of IPL 2024 coming in the final over.

"This team loves a close game. Unfortunately, another loss. I thought we did very well to get that close. Ashutosh, another incredible knock from such a young guy. You see a guy like Ashutosh being able to have that power and that skill as well to go down and sweep pace bowlers.

"He's just an incredible talent. The team's incredibly lucky to have those guys playing really well. Hopefully in the next few games, we can win those close ones and you never know, we're the team that might get that momentum," said Curran after the match ended.

At the same time, he was also left ruing another top-order meltdown for PBKS. "There's no question we've lost quite a lot of early wickets throughout the tournament. That's been quite frustrating.

“But I guess the way the guys have managed to take the game close constantly like that. It's obviously heartbreaking for them to get that close but it's pretty special from some of those younger guys in the middle order," added Curran.

With two wins from seven matches, PBKS are at ninth place on the points table, and Curran is hopeful the side can bounce back in coming matches. "It's been a little bit of a rollercoaster ride. Winning a game and a couple of last-over finishes. There's a lot of positive things.

"I've got full belief in the team that we can turn this around. We'll keep moving forward. We'll keep the smiles. The sun will come up tomorrow and we'll get back to training and keep working hard."