Cooper Connolly stood tall as Punjab Kings defeated Gujarat Titans in a nerve-wracking contest at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, Mullanpur, New Chandigarh. Chasing 163 and with PBKS losing wickets, Connolly produced a stellar unbeaten knock of 72 from 44 balls to take his team to a three-wicket win.
PBKS were going well with Connolly and Prabhsimran Singh putting up 76 runs for the second wicket. However, the Kings lost their way from 83/1; they went down to 118/6 and were in choppy waters with wickets falling all around. However, the young all-rounder Connolly stood tall and, with some help from Xavier Bartlett, took the team over the line in the last over.
Who is Cooper Connolly? Know all about him
Connolly is a Perth-born Australian all-rounder who bats left-handed and bowls left-arm finger spin. He is a 22-year-old rising star who has already played in all three formats for Australia. However, this was his IPL debut after being roped in by the Punjab Kings for 3 crores ahead of this season.
Connolly captained Australia in the U19 World Cup in 2022 and has shown his mettle in big games in his short career. The Southpaw made an unbeaten 11-ball 25 for Perth Scorchers in the BBL 2022-23 final against Brisbane Heat to take his team to the title. Notably, that was only his second T20 innings. Connolly’s big-match temperament was evident again in the 2023-24 Sheffield Shield final, when, on his first-class debut, he scored 90 and played his part in Western Australia’s title win. Connolly made his Test debut against Sri Lanka last year, and he has also played 8 ODIs and 11 T20Is for the Aussies. He also has a fifty in a T20I.
Connolly wins POTM award for his 72*
Connolly was adjudged the Player of the Match due to his batting brilliance. The all-rounder reflected on his performance and his experience early into the Indian cash-rich league during the post-match presentation. “(Easy tournament?) No, I didn’t think about that coming in. I was just looking forward to the experience of playing with some world-class players. And to put on a show tonight was nice. But, it’s a team performance, we played as a team tonight, and that’s all we speak about. (Coming into the tournament) It’s just a bit of a refresh. I had a couple of weeks at home, just a refresh and reset, spend some time with family and friends. And that was probably the point where I changed, and it was just like, yeah, okay, I’m just gonna reset, and I’m gonna go into the IPL fresh,” Connolly said after the match.
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