By Neil Manthorp.
Zimbabwean Sikander Raza’s 57 and Shahrukh Khan’s 23* from just 10 balls guided the Punjab Kings to a nail-biting two-wicket victory against the Lucknow Super Giants in their IPL match at the Bharat Ratna Stadium in Lucknow on Saturday night.
KL Rahul anchored his LSG team to a total of 159-8 on a tricky pitch after being asked to bat first but Punjab scraped home with three balls to spare with Shahrukh hitting a four and two sixes in the final two overs.
Raza enjoyed considerable good fortune after coming to the crease at 45-3 but rode his luck to belt four fours and three sixes to keep Punjab in the game and ultimately leave the job to Shahrukh whose intentions were clear when he straight drove his first delivery for six.
LSG skipper, KL Rahul, was caught on the long on boundary in the penultimate over for 74 from 56 balls (8×4, 1×6) with the next highest score, 29, coming from fellow opener Kyle Mayers who faced 23 deliveries.
Unpredictable bounce and uneven pace made life difficult for all of the batters but, unlike the high-scoring slogathons, it made for a more intriguing contest.
Punjab lost openers Atharva Taide (0) and Prabhimran Singh (4) in the first 14 balls but Australian Matthew Short’s counter-punching 34 from 22 balls (5×4, 1×6) kept his team in the game until he clipped veteran offspinner Krishnappa Gowtham to mid on.
Sam Curran (6) and Jitesh Sharma (2) were dismissed in quick succession to leave the run-chase stuttering at 122-6 but Raza’s cavalier counter-attack brought the visitors back into the contest and, ultimately, victory.
It was clear that batting conditions were awkward when Mayers (1×4, 3×6) heaved a short ball from left arm spinner Harpreet Brar to deep midwicket and Deepak Hooda (2) was trapped lbw third ball by a quicker delivery from offspinner Raza.
Kagiso Rabada struck twice with successive deliveries having both Krunal Pandya (18 from 17 balls) and Nicholas Pooran (0) caught by Shahrukh Khan on the deep mid-wicket boundary, the first an impressive ‘flip-back’ effort as the fielder crossed the boundary before stepping back into play to complete the dismissal.
Australian Marcus Stoinis (15 off 11) hammered two sixes soon after his arrival at the crease before Sam Curran had him caught behind with two further, late wickets giving Curran, standing in as captain for the injured Shikhar Dhawan, figures of 3-31 from his four overs. Rabada finished with 2-34 from his four.
The Super Giants are now joined by Punjab in a four-way tie at the top of the log take a two-point lead at the top of the log share of the log-lead with three wins from their four games so far while Punjab have made an ‘up-down’ start to their campaign with two wins and two losses so far.
LUCKNOW SUPER GIANTS: KL Rahul (captain), Kyle Mayers, Deepak Hooda, Marcus Stoinis, Krunal Pandya, Nicholas Pooran (wkt), Ayush Badoni, Avesh Khan, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Mark Wood, Ravi Bishnoi
PUNJAB KINGS: Atharva Taide, Matthew Short, Harpreet Singh Bhatia, Sikandar Raza, Sam Curran (captain), Jitesh Sharma (wkt), Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh.