Punjab Kings' Bhanuka Rajapaksa Scores Maiden IPL Fifty
Rajapaksa scored his maiden IPL fifty [Twitter]
Punjab Kings' Bhanuka Rajapaksa scored his maiden IPL fifty on Saturday. He achieved this feat against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR0 in match 2 of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Rajapaksa showed flashes of brilliance last season for Punjab, but failed to convert the good start into big scores. However, Saturday was a different day and the southpaw made full use of the opportunity.
For Sri Lanka, Rajapaksa usually bats at number 5, but today he was promoted at number three and the batter tonked KKR bowlers all around the park.
KKR won the toss and elected to field first. Prabhsimran Singh gave Punjab a flying start, but was eventually dismissed for a quick-fire 23 off 12. Rajapaksa then joined hands with skipper Shikhar Dhawan and played some delightful strokes to frustrate the KKR bowlers.
The Sri Lankan batter took a special liking towards ace spinner Sunil Narine and targeted him right from the word go.
The newly appointed captain of KKR, Nitish Rana tried all the permutations and combinations, but everything was ineffective against a ruthless Rajapaksa as he brought up his maiden IPL fifty in 30 balls
Just after breaching the 50-run mark, Rajapaksa threw his wicket away and was dismissed by Umesh Yadav for a well-compiled 50.
 "Anurag Dasgupta")