Lucknow Super Giants got their sixth win in this season’s Indian Premier League after a comfortable 20 run win against Punjab Kings at MCA stadium, Pune. Back to back win helps KL Rahul’s side to climb up to the third spot in the table. Punjab Kings on the other hand stayed in the seventh position after this defeat. Mayank Agarwal won the toss and elected to have a bowl.
LSG had a great first half to their innings courtesy of Quinton De Kock and Deepak Hooda’s 85 run stand. From there it was a collapse for LSG. Punjab bowlers came back strong to contain LSG to 153. It looked like a chasable target for Punjab with the batting lineup they had but there was no real partnership from them. LSG successfully defended the total with some quality bowling and catching.
Let’s look at the talking points of the LSG vs PBKS game–
QDK and Hooda’s 85 run stand
LSG did not get a flying start in the powerplay overs and lost skipper KL Rahul early. The responsibility was taken over by Quinton De Kock and the South African did his job superbly well to score a very composed 46 off 37 balls. Deepak Hooda also gave him good company in the middle coming at number 3. He played sensibly for his 34 against his former side and eventually got run out by Jonny Bairstow. At the end of the game, this 85 run stand proved vital in the end, something which PBKS batters could not do.
Kagiso Rabada’s four-fer in the LSG vs PBKS match
PBKS spent heavily to sign the South African pace sensation and he was stand out yet again. Rabada gave his team an early breakthrough picking up the important wicket of KL Rahul in the 3r over. He picked up another three later to finish with the figure of 4/38.
Despite that, it was just not enough as they could not chase down the total set up by the team that is doing well in their debut season. The plot was lost when the team from Punjab lost quite a few wickets in the middle overs and just couldn’t recover.
Chameera and Mohsin Khan did the damage
LSG pace duo was brilliant on the night. Defending 153, they needed early wickets and the Sri Lankan quickie was up for it. He dismissed Mayank Agarwal in the 5th over, who was looking dangerous. Jonny Bairstow also gave his wicket to Chameera, who finished with another excellent spell of 2/17 in four overs. Mohsin Khan on the other end picked up the dangerous Liam Livingstone in a vital phase of the game. He finished his spell with 3 wickets for 24 runs. In the spin department, Bishnoi and Krunal Pandya were excellent too.
