Punjab Kings wicket-keeper Jitesh Sharma became a victim of severe online abuse after he ran MS Dhoni out during the IPL 2024 match against Chennai Super Kings on Wednesday. Dhoni came out to bat with a little more than 2 overs to go and was dismissed on the final ball of the innings after scoring 14 runs off 11 balls. Dhoni played a low full-toss from Arshdeep Singh straight to the fielder at short third man but before he could finish the second run, Jitesh collected the throw and whipped off the bails.
While the run-out was a good bit of glove work from the youngster, some fans were not happy with Jitesh dismissing Dhoni for the first time in IPL 2024.
“It’s good that you didn’t get selected in the World Cup, you made Thala run out, what difference does one run make?” a user wrote on Instagram.
“You should’ve understood, buddy, people watch matches for him. How bad we must be feeling, you got him run out, and moreover, his leg is injured. Didn’t expect this from you, buddy,” another user remarked.
Coming to the match, Punjab Kings beat Chennai Super Kings by seven wickets to keep their IPL 2024 playoff dreams alive.
“Very happy. Everytime you come to Chennai and take two wins, always a special feeling. Same as last year, we lost a lot of our home games and won away, finding a similar pattern. We are in a position where we need to win all our games, we come up against the same opposition in a few days. I think when you come to Chennai, you now how hot it is and dew is going to settle in.”
“Today we wanted to try something different by trying Rabada in the powerplay. We wanted to use our spinners later on, so took a punt on trying KG within the powerplay. Chahar came back and was the best bowler in the 260 game, and he’s bowling with great confidence. He stepped up when I asked him to bowl against MSD in the 19th over.”
“(On bowling Chahar in the 19th) The pace bowlers were going for a bit in the end, and I wanted to try something different. Asked Rilee what he reckoned and took that gamble with spin. In this game where everyone has been going for runs, you need to take such gambles. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. We come against the same opposition so we have one up on them.”
“It is a new game, new conditions but this win will give us a lot of confidence. I think our bowlers were superb, the spinners and Jonny striking them well, even the way we paced that chase, it was brilliant. Need to build on that confidence,” PBKS captain Sam Curran said.
