Curran: 'Cricket is turning into baseball'

What's happening in the current season of the IPL feels like a story. It would have been okay if someone treated it as just a story, but now it is happening in reality. In Friday's match, the Punjab Kings secured a victory over Kolkata Knight Riders' target of 262 runs with 8 balls to spare and 8 wickets in hand. After the match, Punjab's captain Sam Curran remarked that cricket here feels different, almost like baseball.

The two teams amassed a total of 532 runs. Never before in T20 cricket have so many sixes been seen in a single match, with a total of 42 sixes hit during the Kolkata-Punjab game. No team has chased such a high run total in the history of recognized Twenty20 matches until yesterday.

Punjab's captain Curran said, “Cricket has turned into baseball, hasn’t it? It’s absolutely incredible.”

“Where do I start? Definitely happy to take 2 points. It was an extraordinary match, beyond imagination, but importantly, as a team, we went through some tough times.”

Punjab achieved their first victory in the last five matches. In the chase for a large total, Jonny Bairstow, who was searching for form, played the most crucial role. He scored an impressive unbeaten 108 runs from 48 balls. Regarding Bairstow, Curran said, “I'm really happy for Jonny. He's been on tour for a long time. He seemed hungry to score runs and showed what a fantastic player he is. I'm genuinely delighted for him.”

Additionally, contributions from Prabhsimran Singh's 54 runs off 20 balls and Shashank Singh's unbeaten 68 runs off 28 balls led to such a record victory for the Punjab camp.