Dharamshala, May 4 Left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh stood up with the new ball, getting swing and bounce, to blow away Lucknow Super Giants’ (LSG) top-order and pave the way for Punjab Kings’ (PBKS) move to second place in IPL 2025 points table with a 37-run win at the HPCA Stadium on Sunday.
After Prabhsimran Singh’s sublime 91 took PBKS to a massive 236/5, Arshdeep removed Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh and Nicholas Pooran inside the powerplay to all but virtually set the deal in PBKS’ favour. Ayush Badoni (74) and Abdul Samad (45) sharing an 81-run stand for the sixth wicket ensured LSG finished at 199/7, which meant their net run rate didn’t suffer much, as PBKS got those crucial two points to boost their playoffs chances.
PBKS’ had a bright start to their defence – Arshdeep took out openers Marsh and Markram in the third over. While Marsh’s flick was caught by an attentive deep backward square leg, Markram chopped on to his stumps. Arshdeep again struck in power-play when his inswinger went past Pooran’s stumps and hit him on the back leg, thus trapping him plumb lbw, as LSG made 38/3 in the power-play, their lowest score in this phase of the ongoing season.
Rishabh Pant hit three boundaries in his 18 off 17 off balls, before flashing so hard against Azmatullah Omarzai that he lost control of the bat, while the ball was easily caught by deep cover in the eighth over. LSG’s slide continued as David Miller sliced to deep cover, giving Omarzai his second wicket.
Samad and Badoni brought out some big-hitting blitzkrieg – smashing 21 runs off Vyshak Vijaykumar’s first over, before the former dispatched Yuzvendra Chahal for two sixes in the 13th over. Samad’s blitzkrieg continued when he whipped Marcus Stoinis for four and six, before he hit a slower ball from Jansen back to left-arm pacer and fall for a 24-ball 45.
Badoni went on to bring up his fifty off 32 balls by lofting Vyshak over long-on for six, and followed it up with an incredible whip and sweep fetching him more boundaries. But Chahal had other ideas – forcing Badoni to miscue to short third man and fall for a 40-ball 74, as PBKS began their crucial home stretch with a complete win.
Brief Scores: Punjab Kings 236/5 in 20 overs (Prabhsimran Singh 91, Shreyas Iyer 45; Akash Singh 2-30, Digvesh Rathi 2-46) beat Lucknow Super Giants 199/7 in 20 overs (Ayush Badoni 74, Abdul Samad 45; Arshdeep Singh 3-16, Azmatullah Omarzai 2-33) by 37 runs
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