IPL 2023: 'Staying in the moment was key,' says Nathan Ellis after PBKS beat RR by 5 runs

Australia pacer Nathan Ellis produced a match-winning spell to help Punjab Kings (PBKS) beat Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 on Wednesday.

Batting first, PBKS put up 197 runs on the board at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium, Guwahati. In reply, PBKS secured a five-run win over RR, courtesy of Ellis' 4 for 30 in his quota of four overs. The Aussie fast bowler Ellis, who is the first cricketer to clinch a hat-trick on his T20I debut, earned the Player of the Match as PBKS made it two out of two in their IPL 2023 campaign.

The 28-year-old New South Wales bowler claimed wickets of all crucial batters of RR: Jos Buttler, a well-set Sanju Samson, Devdutt Padikkal, and Riyan Parag.

Speaking at the post-match presentation, Ellis said that the key was to stay in the moment.

"Just stoked to get the win, pleased to get some awards but from a team's point of view nice to get that win. In T20 every ball counts, staying in the moment is really the key. When I was bowling in the backend, I was trying to get my variations right and calculate what the best ball is at that time. For me it's cross-seam and it worked out really well tonight," added Ellis after PBKS's five-run win on Wednesday.

'There were some nervous moments'

Even PBKS captain Shikhar Dhawan praised Ellis, who made his first IPL appearance in the 2021 season, before hailing all the boys for their "team effort."

"There were some nervous moments, I was trying to keep my calm and discussing plans with my bowlers. Was happy with the score we put up. We scored 197 and my bowlers gave those early wickets and then Nathan came in and bowled superbly.

"It was a full team effort. In 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," added Dhawan.

'If you know yorker, you got to use it'

Meanwhile, PBKS all-rounder Sam Curran, who is the current most-expensive player in the IPL, had a poor outing in Guwahati on Wednesday. He failed to pick a wicket, while he gave away 44 runs in four overs.

"I think when it comes to this situations, it is do or die. If you know the yorker, you got to use it. Some days it would work and some days it won't. They changed their ball during the end of their innings. But we weren't able to.

"I was with Prabhsimran four years back with Punjab. Happy to sit in the dug out when it comes to batting. All that matters is we won. Amazingly hard to bowl with the wet ball. It is incredibly hard to hold the seam. It is naturally hard to bowl a yorker with a cross seam," said Curran.

RR captain Samson top-scored for his side with his knock of 42 runs off 25 balls, including five fours and a six. After the match, Samson admitted that it was a "very good track to bat on, while there was not much movement with the new ball and they batted really well, had the momentum in the powerplay. Our bowlers used the variations on a high-scoring wicket and I thought we did well to restrict them to 197."

"Jos wasn't fully fit (injured his finger while taking the catch), the thinking behind keeping Padikkal (in the middle order) was to tackle their two spinners in the middle overs. The coaches have put a lot of work behind him (on Dhruv Jurel), we had a work week camp before the IPL, but the way they have worked a lot of time in our academies (during off-season), having faced 1000s of balls and I'm happy with the way they're progressing. I was expecting the dew to come in the second innings, but it was evident that it was there right at the start, need to be prepared better for such things in the next game," added Samson.

PBKS' next game is on Sunday as they travel to Hyderabad to take on Aiden Makram-led Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). RR will remain in Guwahati and will face off against Delhi Capitals (DC) on Saturday.