A display of brutal hitting from Kyle Mayers and Marcus Stoinis fired the Lucknow Super Giants to 257 for five, the second highest total in IPL history, against the profligate Punjab Kings in the IPL here on Friday.
Mayers (54 off 24) went on the rampage in the powerplay before Stoinis (72 off 40) effortlessly collected boundaries at will to help his team set a massive target. The other important contributions came from Ayush Badoni (43 out of 24) and Nicholas Pooran (45 out of 19). Back to lead Punjab after three games, Shikhar Dhawan opted to field, but his bowlers were all over the place on a belter of a track.
Barring Rahul Chahar, all the other six bowlers leaked more than 10 runs per over. The usually frugal Arshdeep Singh leaked 54 runs in four overs, and Kagiso Rabada gave away 52 runs in four overs, although he had two wickets to show for his efforts. The total was also the highest of the season and six runs shy of 263, the highest ever total in IPL history achieved by RCB back in 2013, when Chris Gayle played his epic 175-run knock.
LSG skipper KL Rahul (12 off 9) was the only batter who could not make use of ideal batting conditions. He was dropped on the first ball of the match by debutant Gurnoor Brar but could not make it count. Stoinis played some breathtaking strokes in his belligerent knock, which included five sixes and half a dozen boundaries. Pooran began his inning with three back-to-back drives off Livingstone. LSG hammered 73 runs off the last 30 balls.
PBKS is doing their best to fulfil the nearly impossible task of chasing the score LSG put up in the first inning. Taide and Raza’s knocks have given PBKS a slim chance of securing the victory. PBKS tried their best, but they had a gargantuan task in front of them after LSG’s insane innings, which saw them put up the second-highest total (257) in a single inning in IPL history. Stoinis and Mayers were the show stealers during the first inning, supported by an explosive knock from Pooran. In the second innings, Yash and Naveen stopped PBKS from wreaking havoc, with both bowlers taking three wickets each.
Taide tried his best to chase down a nearly impossible score for the Kings, but his efforts eventually went in vain.
Atharava Taide batted well for 66 off 36 balls, his maiden fifty plus score in IPL, but the likes of Liam Livingstone (36 off 22) and Sikandar Raza (23 off 14) could not stay long enough to put pressure on the opposition.
Skipper Shikhar Dhawan lasted only two balls on his return. Young pacer Yash Thakur was the most successful bowler with figures of 4/37 in 4 overs.
