Picture : Twitter / ANI
Lucknow Super Giants strengthened their play-offs chances with yet another win. This time they beat the listless Punjab Kings by 20 runs at MCA stadium Pune.
Punjab Skipper Mayank Agarwal won the toss and fielded first. LSG skipper K L Rahul fell early for 6. But opener Quinton de Kock 36 ball 46 and Deepak Hooda ( 34 ) gave some hints of big innings but soon after the duo fell the batting batting collapsed . Krunal Pandya ( 7), Marcus Stoinis ( 1) , Ayush Badoni ( 4), Jason Holder ( 11), The batting slump saw them reach a modest 153/ 8 in their 20 overs. Mohsin Khan ( 13) swung his bat around in the end .
For Punjab : Kagiso Rabada was superb with 4/ 38 ( 4 overs) , Sandeep Sharma 1/ 18 ( 4 overs) , Rahul Chahar 2/ 30( 4 overs) , Rishi Dhawan 0 13 ( 2 overs)
Chasing not a stiff target, Punjab Kings simply self- destructed with the bat . Skipper Mayank Agarwal began postively but in effort to be more aggressive holed out for 25 . Shikhar Dhawan was out for ( 5), Bhanuka Rajapaksa ( 9), Liam Livingstone ( 18) , Jonny Bairstow ( 32) . The big innings never came. The batting flopped again. Rishi Dhawan ( 21) not hit some blows towards the end but it was not enough. Punjab finishing at 133/ 8 in their 20 overs.
For LSG, Mohsin Khan was brilliant with 3/ 24 ( 4 overs) , Dushmantha Chameera 2/ 17 ( 4 overs) , Krunal Pandya 2/11( 4 overs) was spot on. Ravi Bishnoi 1/ 41 ( 4 overs) , Avesh Khan 0/ 26 ( 4 overs) Jason Holder 0/ 8 ( 1 over)
“We played stupid cricket with the bat,” an angry Lucknow Super Giants skipper KL Rahul stated despite his team getting the better of Punjab Kings by 20 runs in the IPL 2022 match at the MCA International Stadium in Pune .
“I was disappointed and fuming at the end of the first innings. Stupid cricket with the bat,” Rahul said at the post match presentation.
“We need to get better with the bat. Half-time, when Quinny (Quinton de Kock) and Deepak (Hooda) were batting. They paced it really really well to get to 60 in 9 overs on a tricky wicket. Had we batted smartly, we could have gotten to 180-190.
“I think we just need to be smarter in reading the game. If we could have not played too many shots we could have done better. We have been good on the field and good with the ball. Just need to keep repeating the good things.”
Meanwhile a disappointed Punjab Kings skipper Mayank Agarwal rued the dismal batting effort. “I think we just kept losing wickets. We had batsmen who were set and we kept getting out. So many soft dismissals for us. It is disappointing and we have to face the truth. We didn’t bat well enough and we were below par with the bat.”
