‘Shikhar Dhawan aur Mayank Markhande ne kamaal kar diya’- Fans react as they see an innings of two halves in PBKS vs SRH game in IPL 2023

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Punjab Kings (PBKS) battled it out at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Saturday in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023. SRH won the toss and chose to bowl first. PBKS got off to the worst possible start as they lost Prabhsimran Singh for a first ball duck off Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Mathew Short did not have the best of debuts in the Indian Premier League as he fell to Marco Jansen for a 1 off 3 balls. Jitesh Sharma was the third wicket to go with the score at 22.

He fell for 4 off 9 balls with one four. Sam Curran tried to resurrect the innings with 22 off 15 balls with three fours and one six. He fell to Mayank Markande who picked up a four-wicket haul on his debut for SRH. Sikandar Raza was caught by Mayank Aggarwal at third man off Umran Malik when he tried to upper cut him for six. Shahrukh Khan hit a good four first ball but he got out lbw to Markhande.

Shikhar Dhawan singlehandedly took PBKS from 88-9 to 143-9 in their 20 overs

Harpreet Brar got out to Umran Malik who bowled a jaffa. Rahul Chahar was not able to read his wrist spinning counterpart as he perished to him. Nathan Elis looked all at sea against Markande and got out to him trying a dinky reverse sweep. Amidst all the wickets falling Shikhar Dhawan stood like the rock of Gibraltar at one end. The Southpaw stroked his way to an invaluable unbeaten 99 off 66 balls with 12 fours and five sixes.

The left-hander was particularly severe on T Natrajan as he had hit him for three sixes in the course of his four overs spell. PBKS looked dead and buried at 88-9 and an early finish was on the cards. But Dhawan battled hard and gave some semblance to the PBKS innings. He put on a one mane show and took PBKS from 88-9 to 143-9 with his amazing knock.

It was an innings of two halves from PBKS and while the other batters could not get going, Dhawan showed why he was regarded as a willy old fox in Indian cricket. Knocks like this could get him back for a World Cup spot in India colours for 2023.

Let us take a look at the reactions on Twitter:

4-fer for markande. Is this the season of redemption? #SRHvPBKS

— Mathew Winston (@Mattwins15) April 9, 2023

As I've said umpteen times, that Nattu has been very predictable. Just yorker & nothing else…No variations, speed nothing..He's been ditched from ICT for the good…..Pathetic to say the least..#SRHvPBKS

— StrangelyAmusing (@Weirdgripping84) April 9, 2023

https://twitter.com/Pavithra8764/status/1645086510704902144?s=20

Mayank Markande, a Punjab native, bowled brilliantly against the Punjab Kings, picking 4 wickets in his first match.
But but… we only care about Telugu player smashing Telugu based team. #SRHvPBKS #IPL2023 #SunRisers

— Rampy. (@RiserTweex) April 9, 2023

https://twitter.com/Sari_poindhi/status/1645086701734465536?s=20

Seems like every player of Punjab Kings is on notice period except Shikhar Dhawan#SRHvPBKS

— Office Memes for Working Teens (@omfwt) April 9, 2023

#IPL #SRHvPBKS #GTvKKR pic.twitter.com/ki6VIwDwAG

— Kumar Sourav (@AdamDhoni1) April 9, 2023

SRH players to Dhawan: Ye tumko Orange Cap Mila isme kya khaas baat hai, hamare to sabhi players k pas hai.

(Yes,this joke was written by Sunny G).#SRHvPBKS #IPL2023 #CricketTwitter

— Akash (@Akashkumarjha14) April 9, 2023

https://twitter.com/RuthikR76090629/status/1645093804188532743?s=20

https://twitter.com/kautukbamb15/status/1645093814263222272?s=20