On Wednesday, the Punjab Kings notched their second straight win, easily defeating the Chennai Super Kings by seven wickets at MA Chidambaram Stadium. Chasing 163, the Punjab Kings coasted to victory at 163/3 in just 17.5 overs. Jonny Bairstow powered the chase with a quickfire 46 off 30 balls, while Rilee Rossouw chipped in 43 runs from 23 balls.
In the first innings, Rahul Chahar and Harpreet Brar each took two wickets to help PBKS limit CSK to 162/7 in their 20 overs. Ruturaj Gaikwad top-scored for CSK with a half-century, notching 62 runs. Meanwhile, veteran IPL bowler Harshal Patel had a quiet outing, bowling just one over in which he conceded 12 runs.
Harshal contributed to the win by taking a sliding catch to dismiss Sameer Rizvi. Kagiso Rabada bowled a short length delivery around off stump, and Rizvi attempted to loft it towards deep third. Patel sprinted to his left and completed a sliding catch near the boundary. After the dismissal, he paused for a few seconds in celebration.
Fans were quick to spot the resemblance between Harshal Patel’s celebration and Yuzvendra Chahal’s signature pose. In response, the Rajasthan Royals spinner jokingly turned to X(Twitter), asking Elon Musk to issue a copyright strike against Harshal.
Chahal captioned ‘Dear @elonmusk paaji, Harshal bhai pe copyright lagana hai’
Harshal Patel has performed well this season, taking 14 wickets in 10 matches. However, the pacer was overlooked for India’s T20 World Cup squad. The selection committee, led by Ajit Agarkar, chose Harshal’s Punjab Kings teammate Arshdeep Singh instead, along with Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj. Khaleel Ahmed and Avesh Khan were named as reserves.
After the win, Punjab Kings climbed to seventh place in the IPL points table with eight points. Meanwhile, Chennai Super Kings remained in fourth place with 10 points.