Debutant Mayank Yadav impressed with his pace to help Lucknow Super Giants beat the Punjab Kings by 21 runs in Lucknow yesterday night. Mayank was found consistently bowling over 150 kph which troubled the Punjab Kings batsmen in their chase of 200 runs. He was able to claim three wickets in his spell, with his fastest delivery clocking 155.8 kph, the quickest this season.
LSG were able to get some points on the board after an opening match defeat at the hands of the Rajasthan Royals. Shikhar Dhawan and PBKS won their first match against the Deccan Chargers but have since lost their momentum with their defeat against RCB.
Match Summary
The Super Giants won the toss and elected to bat first, sending Quinton De Kock and K L Rahul out to the middle. Rahul batted with more intent than he normally does, looking to make an impact within the powerplay. He began attacking from the fourth ball he faced and didn’t stop after hitting a six and a four in the next over.
Rahul didn’t last very long however, getting out for 15 off of just 9 balls after dabbing a length ball to Bairstow left at backward point. In the end Lucknow was able to score 54 runs in the powerplay for the loss of two wickets.
It seemed that the end of the powerplay may dry up the runs due to the spin but Stonis and De Kock went after the bowling. Stonis had three lusty blows in one over, punishing Rahul Chahar’s errors in length. It set up Pooran to come in and play a quick cameo, taking on both the Punjab spinners, scoring 42 off just 21 balls.
Punjab were able to pull things back a bit at the end after de Kock fell in the 14th over for 53. Krunal Pandya however kept the innings going by doing his lower order job for 43 off 22. The last nine balls by LSG only got them 10 runs. In the end Lucknow ended up with 199 runs off their 20 overs.
The pick of the bowlers for the Indian was Sam Curran who picked up three wickets for 28 runs in his four overs. Arshdeep Singh was able to dismiss both openers in his spell of 2 for 30.
The chase began under the lights with a bit of dew which was ideal for the Punjab batsmen. Shikhar Dhawan and Jonny Bairstow had a quick start to the chase, pumping up the score to 61 in the first six overs. Dhawan was explosive in his half-century off just 30 balls and Bairstow joined the party when the spinners came on, hitting two sixes off Bishnoi in the ninth over.
It was the perfect stage for the young 21-year-old Mayank Yadav to come to the crease. The fast bowler from Delhi unleashed some huge pace, troubling both batsman and eventually dismissing Bairstow for 42.
From there he was able to pick up the wickets of Prabhsimran Singh and Jitesh Singh to open the Punjab innings. Dhawan was eventually caught on 70 off 50 balls and the Indians found themselves in a tough position.
Liam Livingstone tried his best to make a match of it but fell short, ending on 27 not out as his team could only get to 178 off their 20 overs.
Yadav ended up taking home the Man of the Match award for his 3/27 spell which greatly impacted the match.
LSG now sits in the 5th position of the IPL standings while the PBKS fell to 6th place. It’s still early on in the competition but Lucknow showed that they have the potential to cause some upsets this season.
Next up for Lucknow will be the Royal Challengers Bangalore on Tuesday. RCB have had an ordinary start to their season, winning only one of their three matches so far.
The Punjab Indian will meet the Gujarat Titans next on Thursday. The Titans have only played the two matches which they have split 1-1.
