Shashank Singh’s heroics with the ball ended Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma’s stay in the crease after a rollicking partnership and fashioned PBKS’ six-wicket win over SRH. | Photo Credit: SHASHI SHEKHAR KASHYAP

Before Saturday, Shashank Singh’s only IPL victim was Abhishek Sharma (2024). That was, however, before the part-time medium-pacer’s exploits (3-0-20-2) against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

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 SRH.

PBKS opener Prabhsimran Singh credited skipper Shreyas Iyer for giving Shashank this rare responsibility.

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“Actually, our captain brought in Shashank. And there can be another reason for introducing Shashank because he has dismissed Abhishek once before. He got him out again today [Saturday]. 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 wicket-keeper, too, played a major part in the victory (51, 25b). It was his blistering 99-run stand with 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 the coach also helped us a lot”.

Published on Apr 11, 2026