Punjab Kings may have lost the match against Gujarat Titans, but their batter Suryansh Shedge, aiming to be a great finisher lower down the order, showed what a terrific player he is.
Table-toppers PBKS have been the most formidable team this season, and on Sunday, for the first time their top and middle order came a cropper. The team was at one time reeling at 36/4.
In came Shedge, playing his only second game this season, and got into the repair mode straight away before taking Manav Suthar to the cleaners. He scored three sixes and two fours in the only over bowled by Suthar.
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However, he got out at the wrong time after scoring 57 off 29 balls with the help of three fours and five sixes. He got out off the last ball of the 16th over to Kagiso Rabada. PBKS could only manage 163/9 at the end, a target which undoubtedly tested GT but wasn’t match-winning for sure.
“Perhaps we could have scored 20 to 25 more runs, but I still believe 163 was a fighting total. We gave everything we had, and there are many positives to take from this game,” Shedge said after the match.
This was only the second appearance for Shedge this season after five in 2025, but he insisted that he knew his turn would come soon and that he was preparing himself for it.
“I wouldn’t say I was waiting; I was preparing. The time on the sidelines benefited me, and it gave me the opportunity to prepare physically and mentally. Ricky Ponting and Shreyas Iyer have consistently told me the same thing, too: when the opportunity arrives, you must be ready to take it with both hands. That is what I tried to do today,” he said.
Shedge played as required!
The 23-year-old from Mumbai also said that the pitch at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad wasn’t exactly friendly to batting, and he realised it very early into his innings and played accordingly.
“My only intention was to spend as much time at the crease as possible, and I think that made things easier as I progressed through the innings. On such wickets, a batter has to take time to settle before playing expansive shots. Targeting 240 or 250 on this track was never realistic; the double-paced surface simply did not allow it,” he said.