NationalPolitics

IPL-19: Centurion Shreyas and Prabhasimran kept PBKS’s hopes alive, LSG’s campaign ends with 10th defeat.

By Samira Vishwas

Lucknow, 23 May. The decision on whether the defending champions Punjab Kings (PBKS), who suddenly slipped from the top due to six consecutive defeats, will get the playoff ticket or not, will be taken on Sunday, the last day of the league stage. At present, captain Shreyas Iyer not only scored a stormy century at the time of need (101 not out, 51 balls, five sixes, 11 fours) but also his valuable century partnership with opener Prabhsimran Singh (69 runs, 39 runs, two sixes, seven fours) was the result that his team defeated Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) by seven wickets with 12 balls remaining here on Saturday night. Kept their hopes alive by winning.

Lucknow reached 196 runs after English’s fifty

Lucknow Super Giants, forced to bat first at Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, scored a strong score of 196 runs for six wickets with the explosive half-century of opener Josh Inglis (72 runs, 44 balls, two sixes, nine fours) and his useful partnerships with other batsmen.

Shreyas-Prabhsimran’s 140-run partnership made victory easy

In retaliation Mohd. After two big blows to Punjab Kings in the first three overs at the hands of Shami (2-45), Prabhsimran and Shreyas started such a fierce attack that the host bowlers were left in a state of disarray. Both of them made a blazing century partnership of 140 runs in 76 balls for the third wicket and their team proved their superiority over Lucknow for the second time in the season by scoring 200 runs for three wickets in 18 overs.

Shami spoiled the start, Prabhasimran and Shreyas set the tone.

Actually, Punjab Kings got a shock on the very first ball, when Mohd. Shami (2-45) did not allow Priyanka Arya to open the account. The same bowler also eliminated Cooper Connolly (18 runs, 10 balls, four fours) in the third over (2-22). But Prabhasimran and Shreyas, who had come to support him, sensing the urgency of the occasion, started playing cautiously. This was the reason why Punjab remained one run less than Lucknow (2-66) in the powerplay. But after this both of them increased the speed and then there was no looking back. First Prabhasimran scored his sixth fifty of the season and soon Shreyas also crossed the 50+ mark for the sixth time.

Prabhasimran became the first victim of first entrant Arjun Tendulkar

The decisive century partnership of Shreyas and Prabhasimran was finally broken in the 15th over, when Arjun Tendulkar, son of genius Sachin Tendulkar, who was playing the debut match for Lucknow, trapped Prabhasimran LBW. At that time Punjab needed 35 runs in 30 balls.

Shreyas scored his first century in IPL with the winning six

Well, in the presence of Suryansh Shedge (nine runs not out, seven balls, one four), ‘Player of the Match’ Shreyas hit a six against Mohsin on the last ball of the 18th over and scored his first century in the IPL and also put the final seal on the team’s victory.

Shreyas’s team reached fourth place with seventh win

To be honest, the most dramatic performance in the current season has been that of Punjab Kings, who remained unbeaten with six wins in the first seven matches and remained on top of the points table. But after that, he had to face six consecutive defeats and he slipped from second to third, and then further down from there. Well, now Shreyas and Company have again reached the fourth position with 15 points in 14 matches. The Lucknow team, which was already out of the race, ended its campaign trailing with eight points after its 10th defeat in 14 matches.

Delhi Capitals also formally bid farewell

Now it will be interesting to see how the results of the last two matches of the league played on Sunday (Mumbai vs Rajasthan and Kolkata vs Delhi) affect Punjab Kings. Currently, another development from the result of Punjab vs Lucknow match is that Delhi Capitals also got formally bid farewell as despite the win over KKR on the last day, they will be able to reach only 14 points.

The excitement of the last day hinges on the Rajasthan vs Mumbai match

The probable picture of the matches on the last day of the league stage is that if Rajasthan beats already eliminated Mumbai, then Riyan Parag’s team will not only disappoint Punjab and complete the playoff lineup with 16 points but the KKR vs DC match will also become meaningless. But if Rajasthan loses, then Kolkata will have to win by a big margin to decide the playoff lineup, so that it can improve its net run rate by 15 points than Punjab.

English and Badoni rescued Lucknow from a bad start

Well, if we look at Lucknow’s innings in today’s match, it also had a bad start as Azmatullah Omarzai (1-29) and Marco Jansen (2-33) returned Arshin Kulkarni (0) and Nicholas Pooran (2 runs) respectively in the first three overs. After this, Ayush Badoni (43 runs, 18 balls, three sixes, five fours) along with Iglis showed his sharp hands and a partnership of 49 runs was reached in 23 balls.

The biggest partnership of 65 runs between Pant and English

Yuzvendra Chahal (2-25) broke the partnership by stumping Badoni with Prabhasimran, while captain Rishabh Pant (26 runs, 22 balls, three fours) along with Inglis, who scored his second consecutive and third overall fifty in the current season, made the biggest partnership of 65 runs in 43 balls for the fourth wicket.

score card

Chahal made Pant his second victim in the 14th over and Shashank Singh (1-29) returned the English in the 17th over. In the end, Abdul Samad showed his sharp hand and took the team close to 200 with his unbeaten inning of 37 runs (20 balls, three sixes, three fours).

Sunday’s matches: Mumbai Indians vs Rajasthan Royals (Mumbai, 3.30 PM), Kolkata Knight Riders vs Delhi Capitals (Kolkata, 7.30 PM).

Samira Vishwas 1248 posts 0 comments
You might also like More from author

Comments are closed.