Punjab Kings batter Prabhsimran Singh smashed the fifth century of the ongoing Indian Premier League season, playing a fighting knock in his side’s match against Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday.

Asked to bat first, Punjab were in trouble early in the innings after they lost three wickets within the powerplay. But Prabhsimran saw off that tricky phase, steadied the ship and exploded in the back-end of the knock. His knock of 103 off 65 balls was laced with 10 fours and six sixes on a pitch that wasn’t otherwise too easy to bat on.

The fact that the second highest score of Punjab’s batting effort was 20 goes to show the brilliance of the opener’s effort. He scored 27 runs off the first 30 balls he faced, he then went to score 76 runs off the next 35 balls. Punjab finished with 167/7 in their 20 overs.

PBKS won the match by 31 runs to send DC mathematically out of playoff race. It was a stunning collapse from 69/0 after 6.1 overs as DC were arrested by spin. Prabhsimran Singh’s century was made to look even better in the final scheme of things as DC managed 136/8.

This was the first century by a Kings batter in the IPL since September 2022 when Mayank Agarwal scored a ton in Sharjah.

Punjab captain Shikhar Dhawan said later, “It was an amazing knock. I rate this knock quite high, playing that sort of a knock with that high strike-rate and the shots he has played against the turn as well – it was amazing.”

The knock meant that there have been centuries on back-to-back days in the IPL, with Suryakumar Yadav’s blistering knock on Friday night as the Mumbai Indians beat the Gujarat Titans.

Centuries so far in IPL 2023

Batter Score Balls faced 4s 6s SR For Against
Brook 100 55 12 3 181.81 Sunrisers v KKR Eden Gardens 14 Apr 2023
V Iyer 104 51 6 9 203.92 KKR v Mumbai Wankhede 16 Apr 2023
Jaiswal 124 62 16 8 200.00 Royals v Mumbai Wankhede 30 Apr 2023
Suryakumar 103 49 11 6 210.20 Mumbai v Titans Wankhede 12 May 2023
Prabhsimran 103 65 10 6 158.46 Punjab v DC Delhi 13 May 2023

Here are some reactions to the knock: