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Prabhsimran powers Punjab to IPL win over Lucknow

rugby01 April 2025 17:45| © MWP
By:Patrick Compton
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Punjab skipper Shreyas Iyer smashed a six in the 17th over to complete an eight-wicket mauling of the Lucknow Super Giants in their Tata IPL clash at Lucknow on Tuesday night.

It was Iyer’s second successive half-century and his team’s second successive victory in the competition and it could hardly have been a more commanding win.

Punjab, having won the toss and putting the home team in to bat, would have been satisfied with restricting them to a par total of 171 for seven wickets.

Chasing their victory target, the visitors never looked in trouble after the early dismissal of Priyansh Arya.

Wicketkeeper-batter Prabhsimran Singh was in superb form, clinically finding the gaps all around the field as he belted nine fours and three sixes in his 69 in just 34 balls.

He shared a second-wicket partnership of 84 in 44 balls with Iyer and the pair looked as though they would finish their task together.

But Singh was brilliantly dismissed on the midwicket boundary when he cracked wrist-spinner Digvesh Rathi to the boundary fence.

Ayush Badoni caught the ball on the fence but, realising he was going over the rope, tossed the ball back into the field of play for Ravi Bishnoi to complete a fine synchronised catch.

But if that dismissal briefly lifted the home crowd’s spirits, they were soon dashed by Iyer and his new partner, impact player Nehal Wadhera, who blazed away without any worries to complete the win in just 16.2 overs.

The pair added an unbroken 61 in 35 balls and they seemed to be playing on a different surface to their opponents.

JANSEN IMPRESSES WITH PACE AND BOUNCE

Earlier, Lucknow made a poor start to their innings with Mitchell Marsh dismissed first ball in the opening over as he got a leading edge to left-arm paceman Arshdeep Singh for Marcus Jansen to complete a comfortable catch at slip.

Aiden Markram looked in excellent touch, reaching 28 in 18 balls before he drove loosely at Lockie Ferguson and got an inside edge onto his stumps.

Nicholas Pooran also played with authority, cracking 44 off 30 balls, but just when he looked to be taking complete charge, he mistimed an off-drive off wristspinner Yuzvendra Chahal and was nicely taken in the deep by Glenn Maxwell.

It was the second of Maxwell’s two fine catches in the deep, the second, even better, taken to dismiss Badoni for an aggressive 41 in 33 balls.

Skipper Rishabh Pant had another disappointing outing, sweeping a Maxwell long hop straight to “45” when he had scored just a couple of runs.

David Miller and Abdul Samad (27 off 12 balls) helped to take the Super Giants to their final total, but, on a good pitch for batting, it always looked to be at least 20 runs too few. And so it proved.

For Punjab, Arshdeep was the most successful bowler, with 3-43 but Jansen was the most impressive, claiming 1-28 off his four overs.

The tall left-arm seamer had all the batters struggling to handle his pace and bounce.

Punjab Kings XI: Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Priyansh Arya, Shreyas Iyer (capt), Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Suryansh Shedge, Glenn Maxwell, Marco Jansen, Yuzvendra Chahal, Lockie Ferguson, Arshdeep Singh

Lucknow Super Giants XI: Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Nicholas Pooran, Rishabh Pant (capt & wk), Ayush Badoni, Digvesh Rathi, David Miller, Abdul Samad, Avesh Khan, Shardul Thakur, Ravi Bishnoi

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