The LSG captain scored his first fifty of the IPL season, but PBKS chased down the target despite losing early wickets and being without their captain, Dhawan.
KL Rahul finally broke out of his bad streak with a game that would have kept people interested even after the IPL was over. Rahul scored his 32nd half-century in the league (74, 56 balls, 8 fours, and 1 six), and he also reached 4,000 runs, but his team still lost for the first time at home this season.
Shahrukh Khan and Kagiso Rabada, two batters for Punjab Kings, congratulate Lucknow Super Giants leader KL Rahul after Punjab Kings won their IPL 2023 cricket game against Lucknow Super Giants on Saturday, April 15, 2023, in Lucknow. By two wickets, Punjab won. (PTI Photo by Kamal Kishore) (PTI04_15_2023_000365A) (PTI)
Rahul, who had scored 8, 20, 35, and 18 in his previous four matches, came into his own and helped LSG score 159/8. But Punjab Kings still won by two wickets with only three balls left, getting to 161/8. They did this at the full Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium without their captain, Shikhar Dhawan, who hurt his shoulder, and with Sam Curran in charge.
It is PBKS’s third victory. In the last over, they needed seven runs to win. Shahrukh Khan and Kagiso Rabada got them with three balls left. In his first IPL season, Zimbabwe’s Sikandar Raza got his first fifty (57 runs, 41 balls, four fours, and three sixes) and set the stage. When Raza came up to bat, the team was in trouble at 45/3. His quick-fire innings brought the team back together. Ravi Bishnoi’s leg-spinner Marcus Stoinis took an easy catch off of him in the 18th over, but PBKS won in the end.
First-time bowler Yudhvir Singh quickly got rid of openers Atharva Taide (0) and Prabhsimran Singh (4). Matthew Short (34—22b, 5×4, 1×6) tried to speed up until off-spinner Krishnappa Gowtham got rid of him. Krunal Pandya then got rid of Harmanpreet Singh (22, 22b, 3×4).
Rahul and Kyle Mayers, who was picked to open as an Impact Player, scored 49 runs in 36 balls. This set the pace for a big score on the red soil pitch, which had bounce and pace. Mayers (29 runs, 23 balls, 1 four, 3 sixes) only hit sixes in the first few overs before he was caught by Harmanpreet Singh off of Harpreet Brar.
Even though wickets kept falling, Rahul hit Arshdeep Singh for three beautiful boundaries. LSG got to 100 runs in 77 balls thanks to a 48-run stand between Krunal Pandya (18, 17b, 2×4) and the third wicket.
Rahul was caught by Arshdeep off Curran in the last 14 balls of LSG’s game. Gowtham was caught by Sikandar Raza off of Curran, and Yudhvir Singh was caught by Shahrukh off of Curran.
Rahul was upset and said, “I think we were about 10 runs short near the end.” When the dew fell, it seemed to help the hitters a bit more. We were not good with the ball. “When you play on a new field, you can’t rely on what you did in the last game,” he said after the game.
“We take things as they come, evaluate them as we go, and don’t really set goals for ourselves. If a couple of hitters come in and hit well, we can get to 180 or 190. Today, a lot of the hitters hit good shots, but they were caught right on the boundary line. On a different day, we would have gotten the extra 10-15 runs that would have made the difference,” he said. “We have 7-8 batters on our team, and only a few of them can clear any barrier.” Some aren’t as strong, but they have skills. It’s important for each person to do his or her job. That’s what makes a team fun, and that’s what we need to do.
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