Punjab Kings captain Shikhar Dhawan played a superb innings in the IPL 2023 match against Rajasthan Royals at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium on Wednesday. The left-handed batter initially took his time but once he got going, it was a proper T20 knock with his shots coming all around the park.
Eventually, Dhawan remained unbeaten on 86 off 56 balls with the help of 9 fours and 3 sixes. As soon as he got past his half-century, he entered the record books as he became only the third cricketer after David Warner and Virat Kohli to have hit 50th fifty-plus scores in the competition.
Whiile the Delhi Capitals captain for the season, Warner, has 60 such scores to his credit, Dhawan and Kohli now have 50 such scores in the cash-rich league. This was also the southpaw's first half-century as captain and laid the foundation of a solid PBKS total along with Prabhsimran Singh's 60 off 34 balls which helped them get to 197/4 in their 20 overs.
Other than this, Dhawan broke yet another one of Kohli's record as he now as the most number of 50-plus partnership in the competition. He achieved the when after his 90-run opening partnership with Prabhsimran which was followed by a 50-run stand with Jitesh Sharma for the third wicket.
With this stand, Dhawan's tally now stands at 96 fify-plus partnerships while Kohli is at 95 and will get chances to reclaim his record ahead in the competition. Former Chennai Super Kings star Suresh Raina is third on this list with 83 such partnerships.
However, the out-of-favour India star was also involved in a rather unfortunate incident during Punjab's innings. One of his powerful shot, on the first ball of the 11th over hit his own teammate Bhanuka Rajapaksa who was at the non-striker's end. The Sri Lankan was in pain and was forced to walk off the field.
The extend of his injury is unknown.