GT vs PBKS IPL 2024: Shashank Singh’s Filmy Plot

Ahmedabad : Punjab Kings' Shashank Singh takes the winning runs during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 T20 cricket match between Gujarat Titans and Punjab Kings at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, Thursday, April 04, 2024. (PTI Photo/Vijay Verma) (PTI04_04_2024_000383B)

The 17th match of the 17th IPL will be remembered as the one that unleashed Shashank Redemption on social media. The moment the Tata IPL match got over, at the glittering Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, tweets and memes began to surface all focusing on how Shashank Singh of Punjab Kings had redeemed his ‘mistaken’ selection at the IPL auction last December. X was abuzz with how a 32-year-old cricketing baby had finally repaid the debt of his franchise owner’s original blunder. It could all have been a plot from a Bollywood melodrama. The unwanted son saves the family honour and wins everyone’s hearts. The audience leave the theatres teary eyed and emotional.

Flashback

IPL auction where the name of Shashank Singh was called out with a base price of 20 lakh rupees. PBKS puts up the paddle only to realise that this was not the 19-year-old Shashank that they had wanted but a 32-year-old all-rounder who had remained unsold the previous season. The co-owners, Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia were seen conferring with the auctioneer about the ‘honest’ mistake, but the hammer had fallen and what was done was done. PBKS owned Shashank Singh.

Flashforward

Gujarat Titans (GT) were facing Punjab Kings (PBKS) on 4th April in Ahmedabad. The Titans were on their home ground and batting first their good-looking captain thrashed an unbeaten 89 setting up for the Kings a reasonable target of 200 that beings to seem daunting as the match progresses. It all seemed lost for PBKS when an unlikely knight in shining armour decides to wield his bat and save the Kings from the Titans. This was the moment Shashank Singh had been waiting for and all the omens were also there. On television closeups a dragon fly was spotted, in the 9th over, sitting on top of his yellow helmet. That was when he survived an LBW call, the dragon fly’s wings could be seen fluttering, and it was still there the next ball when he smashed a six. Shashank Singh’s 61 unbeaten runs of 29 balls won the redemption that he had been waiting for. He had his hero monologue too when he said “…when I go into bat, I think I am the best”.

How could social media not have a field night of their own after such a near filmy experience?