RR vs PBKS Man of the Match 2023: Who won MOTM Award at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium Today?

Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings have successfully managed to register another fascinating episode of their intense rivalry comprising high-scoring thrillers. Not the most popular of teams but their encounters against one another in the recent years have been nothing short of cliffhangers.

Asked to bat first by RR captain Sanju Samson (42), PBKS scored a match-winning 197/4 in 20 overs in the inaugural Indian Premier League match at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium.

A 58-ball 90-run opening partnership between Prabhsimran Singh (60) and Shikhar Dhawan (86*) not only laid a solid foundation but also emerged as a primary reason behind the team being able to set a target in vicinity of the 200-run mark.

The target, however, also ended up getting chased down by the home team who eventually fell short by just 5 runs. Although opening the batting with Ravichandran Ashwin didn’t work in their favour as they lost three wickets in the powerplay but impactful contributions from the likes of Samson, Riyan Parag (20), Shimron Hetmyer (36) and Dhruv Jurel (32*) kept them alive in the match.

Needing 74 runs to win in the last five overs with only four wickets in hand, Rajasthan were able to challenge Punjab primarily due to a 27-ball 62-run seventh-wicket partnership between Hetmyer and Jurel.

While the West Indian hitting a four and three sixes at a strike rate of 200 wasn’t astonishing, an uncapped Indian batter on IPL debut hitting three fours and two sixes at 213.33 wasn’t expected. With the 22-year old player not losing his shape whilst playing the big shots under the most pressure-generating situation, he ended up unearthing himself as yet another find of the IPL.

RR vs PBKS Man of the Match

In a match where batters were expected to call the shots and they did as well, Kings pacer Nathan Ellis bowled a match-winning spell reading 4-0-30-4. Playing ahead of Kagiso Rabada, Ellis justified him grabbing the overseas pacer’s spot by dismissing batters such as Jos Buttler (19), Samson, Parag and Devdutt Padikkal (21) to keep striking in the middle overs.

“Just stoked to get the win. In T20, every ball counts. Staying in the moment is really the key. When I was bowling at the back end, I was trying to get my variations right and calculate what the best ball is at that time. For me, it’s cross-seam and it worked out really well tonight,” Player of the Match Ellis told host broadcaster Star Sports Network during the post-match presentation ceremony.