Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Punjab Kings (PBKS) ended up playing another close contest in Indian Premier League on Wednesday night. The two teams have a history of seeing games go down to the wire. Who can forget that classic game from IPL 2020 in Sharjah when a struggling Rahul Tewatia smashed Sheldon Cottrell for five sixes in the over to turn the match on its head. RR's Tewatia had struggled badly before this over, 18th of the innings. He had scored just 14 off 21 balls, in the tough chase, and was going to be declared as the villain of the match by RR fans. But 30 runs off just 6 balls completly brought the momentum back with the Royals. RR eventually chased down the 224-run target to win a cliffhanger.


Also Read | IPL 2023: Sanju Samson Says ‘We Were One Hit Away From Win’ After Punjab Kings Loss


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The first match of IPL 2023 between RR and PBKS may have not lived up to the same standards as the Sharjah one in 2022 mentioned above, but it too went down the wire. This time, Kings won by 5 runs. 


After the match, RR skipper Sanju Samson took to Instagram and posted a picture with his rival captain and good friend Shikhar Dhawan, teasing him with a question. He asked: "Shikki pa, har baar itne tight matches kyun? (Why do we play so many tight matches, Shikki pa)".


Dhawan gave a brilliant reply to Sanju. He wrote in the comment: "Kabhi ham, kabhi tum Sanju (We win some, we lose some, Sanju)." The PBKS captain was influential in the way he led the side as he stroked 86 off just 56 deliveries that included 9 fours and 3 sixes respectively. He got off to a slow start but improved his strike rate later on in the innings.


Check out Sanju and Dhawan's exchange over Instagram below:



The other stars for PBKS on the night were Prabhsimran Singh (60 off 34 balls), Jitesh Sharma (27 off 16 balls) and Nathan Ellis (4/30). The Australian pacer was adjudged the Player of the Match for his four-wicket haul on a surface that was beautiful to bat on. 


Dhawan was happy with the effort of his team against the last season's defending champipns. He said that it is important that Punjab keeps the winning momentum after a solid start in new season. "These 2 games we got a great start, Prabh did really well and I tried my best to increase my strike-rate. We want to keep the momentum going as we got a good batting line-up. We respect the opponents' bowlers but want to keep the intent and aggression going," Dhawan said at the post-match presentation ceremony.