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Priyansh Arya in action© BCCI
Punjab Kings defeated Chennai Super Kings by 18 runs in their IPL 2025 match on Tuesday in Mullanpur. Opting to bat, PBKS posted a whopping total of 219/6 in 20 overs and then went on to restrict CSK at 201/5. It was the third victory in four games for the Shreyas Iyer-led side and the biggest credit for the win goes to young opener Priyansh Arya, who broke several records with his century. The 24-year-old batter stood tall against CSK bowlers and effortlessly hammered 103 off just 42 balls.
Arya opened the proceedings, alongside Prabhsimran Singh, who departed for duck in the second over. Later, the wickets kept on falling but Priyansh remained firm and fearlessly played his shots to reach the triple figures.
The opener began the innings with a monstrous six on the first delivery of Khaleel Ahmed. On the second delivery, he was almost trapped and gave a catch to Khaleel but the pacer missed the opportunity and Priyansh stayed alive to hit a ton.
While talking about his mindset after surviving the close call, Priyansh stated that he remained confident to hit some more boundaries.
"My confidence did not shake even a bit. It rather motivated me to do better and attack all the balls that were coming in slot. Dropping of a catch is nothing new. It can happen with anyone. We also dropped some catches, so it's part of the game," Priyansh told NDTV during a media interaction.
The match between CSK and PBKS was a fielding disaster as a total of eight catches were dropped from both the sides.
Before that century against CSK, Arya came into the game on the back of being castled by Jofra Archer's scorching pace on the first ball of PBKS' chase, as they eventually fell short by 50 runs to Rajasthan Royals. He revealed continuous talking with head coach Ricky Ponting and captain Shreyas Iyer gave him positive vibes before stepping out to attack CSK bowlers.
"My mindset was positive, because when I got out on the first ball (against RR), I didn't think of anything much. I thought that I will play with a positive attitude as much as possible. If I get the ball, I will hit it. Whenever I talk to Ricky sir, he is always positive. He said that there is no problem, it was the first ball and anyone can get out."
"He told me that if I get the same ball in the next match (against CSK), I should hit it out of the ground, and I was very confident after hearing that. I was thinking that if I get the first ball, I will hit it, as per my instinct and not defend. Shreyas bhaiya told me to play on my instinct, as it would be better for me, and that helped me a lot.
PBKS will now be taking on Sunrisers Hyderabad for their next IPL 2025 match on Saturday in Hyderabad.
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