Shashank Singh’s only IPL victim had been Abhishek Sharma in 2024. That was, however, before the part-time medium-pacer’s exploits (3-0-20-2) on Saturday (April 11, 1016).

His heroics not only ended Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma’s stay in the crease after a rollicking partnership but also fashioned PBKS’ six-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad. PBKS opener Prabhsimran Singh credited skipper Shreyas Iyer for giving Shashank this rare responsibility.

“There could have been another reason for introducing Shashank because he has dismissed Abhishek once before. He got him out again today. Abhishek and Head were batting really well, and we got back into the match only after those two wickets,” Prabhsimran said during the post-match press conference at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh Stadium.

The wicketkeeper-batter, too, played a major part in the victory with a 25-ball 51. It was his blistering 99-run stand with fellow opener Priyansh Arya (57, 20b) that broke the back of the 220-run chase. “Priyansh and I are batting well as a pair. We have chased well all these games, and we’ll try to continue this way.”

On the mindset required before setting out to chase such a tall target, Prabhsimran elaborated: “When you are going for a big chase, you have to cash in on the PowerPlay. At one point, it looked like we would have to chase 250, but our bowlers made a really good comeback.

“The clarity given to us by the captain and coach (Ricky Ponting) also helped us a lot”.