Dharamsala, May 4 Punjab Kings head coach Ricky Ponting commended captain Shreyas Iyer for his strategic decision to elevate Josh Inglis to the no.3 position, a move that paid dividends as the Australian, in partnership with Prabhsimran Singh, provided PBKS with a solid start against Lucknow Super Giants.
After PBKS lost Priyansh Arya cheaply for one, the duo put on a 48-run stand in 22 balls for the second wicket before Inglis departed. In his 30-run innings Inglis smashed three sixes and a boundary off Mayank Yadav.
"It was actually a move that the captain came up with, and Shreyas thought, on that sort of a pitch, against that bowling attack, it would be the right thing to. If a wicket fell early, to send Inglis in. We felt that Mayank would bowl early on, and if you look at the way he bowls, he generally bowls reasonably short, and that's one of Inglis' great strengths. As you saw tonight, those pull shots were pretty amazing straight away.
"So, yeah, that was what the captain wanted to do. It then also allows us to have, you know, lyer, Wadera and Shashank through the middle of the innings, which is what we thought would be crucial for us in tonight's game as well. It was probably a surprise call for LSG to see him go out, and it paid off for us tonight," Ponting said at the post-match presser.
Punjab piled up 236/ 5, driven by a blistering 91 from Prabhsimran, who missed out on a maiden IPL hundred by just nine runs. Captain Iyer and Shashank Singh chipped in with explosive cameos to propel the run rate in the latter half of the innings.
"Once we got off to a (flier) you know, I think we were 70-odd at the end of the power play, all the momentum was going with us, and you see with our batting, we've got someone like Azmatullah at number nine, so we bat really, really deep, It allows our top order to play with a lot of freedom, and they did that tonight," he said.
The Aussie coach praised Prabhsimran for his performance and said, "He has done brilliantly througout the tournament. Priyansh and Prabhsimrabn have got off to a good starts throughout the tournament. Before tonight, both made 350 runs each. I challenged both openers today for one of them to get a hundred in this match. Unfortunately, Prabhsimran fell little bit short."
"He's a very, very good young player and he's very keen to bring success to this team and that showed with the way that he played tonight," Ponting added.
In reply, Lucknow's chase never took off as they were reduced to 73/4 by the 10th over. Arshdeep Singh rattled the top order with a sharp opening burst, finishing with figures (3-16) that broke the backbone of the opposition’s batting. The visitors were eventually bundled out well short, handing PBKS a comfortable victory and a second win over Lucknow this season.
Ponting further praised Arshdeep for his bowling performance and said the pacer is gaining confidence as the tournament is progressing.
"Arshdeep has got better and better every game. He's got more confident and starting to get those powerplay wickets now that we know that he can with that brand new ball. His first over tonight set the tone for our bowling innings. He's a star and we're very lucky to have him in our team," he said.
The victory move PBKS' up to the second place in the points table within striking distance of a playoff berth.
LSG will now need to win each of their remaining three games and hope a few other results go in their favour to seal a berth in the playoffs.
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