Sikandar Raza hit his first IPL fifty after an impressive showing by his side’s bowling unit as Punjab Kings defeated Lucknow Super Giants by two wickets in a final finish on Saturday. Invited to bat, Captain KL Rahul hit his first fifty of this IPL season but Punjab Kings roared back with timely wickets to limit the Lucknow side to a humble 159 for eight. Looking for 160 for a win, Zimbabwean Raza, who also picked a wicket with his spin bowling, cracked a 41-ball 57 to keep PBKS in the hunt for Matthew Short’s 22-ball 34. Once he was holed out in the 18th over Ravi Bishnoi, Shahrukh Khan (23 not out) completed the job and hit the final runs with a boundary. Raza hit four boundaries and three sixes in his winning hit.
On a two-speed wicket, KL Rahul showed great composure on the way his 56-ball 74 as he added 53 and 48 runs with Kyle Mayers (29) and Krunal Pandya (18) for the first and third wicket respectively.
LSG couldn’t finish things off on a high note, however, as they lost four wickets for 48 runs in the last five overs, with Sam Curran taking three.
Kagiso Rabada (2/34), Arshdeep Singh (1/22), Harpreet Brar (1/10) and Sikandar Raza (1/19) were also among the wickets.
Pacer Yudhvir Singh defended the total and made a sensational debut, dismissing fellow debutant Atharva Taide (0) and Prabhsimran Singh (4) – who replaced Rahul Chahar as impact sub – in his first two overs to reduce PBKS to 17 for 2.
Matthew Short looked good and hit three times on Avesh Khan’s boundary, before producing two hits on Yudhvir’s fence.
Krishnappa Gowtham, who also replaced Kyle Mayers as impact sub, was batted for a six by Short, but the spinner let Stoinis catch the batsman as Punjab fell to 45 for 3 in 6 overs.
Raza then took responsibility as he and Harpreet Singh Bhatia (22) added run-a-ball 30 before Pandya broke the stand and hollowed out the first on a deep back square.
Raza exploded in the 13th over, hitting two consecutive sixes and a four off Pandya to rack up 17 runs.
However, KL Rahul made a sensational effort to get rid of Jitesh Sharma, while Ravi Bishnoi, introduced after 14 overs, got rid of Curran (6) before taking Raza into account to raise hopes of an upset.
Needing 21 balls from 13, Shahrukh sent Woods sailing to the max, while Brar also grabbed a four to bring down the required runs.
Earlier, Rahul and Mayers gave LSG a flying start, with the burly left-handed West Indian initially being the aggressor.
While Rahul dealt in limits, Mayers dealt in maximums.
Mayers shot Mathew Short over a deep back square leg and followed it up with a back punch for another six over Sam Curran covers before putting Rabada in the stands as LSG ran away to 40 with no loss in the power play.
With the field offering a bit of grip and spin, Curran, who was leading PBKS in place of an injured Shikhar Dhawan, brought in the spinners.
Harpreet Brar soon removed Mayers, who was holed out to a deep back square leg in the eighth over, while Raza Deepak trapped Hooda (2) as LSG dropped to 62 for 2.
Rahul then combined with Pandya to take LSG past 100 before Rabada returned to sack the latter in the 15th over.
Two balls later, the star of the final match, Nicholas Pooran, also fell as he looked for a big hit with Shahrukh Khan taking the catch.
However, Marcus Stoinis got going from the start and beat Rahul Chahar for back-to-back sixes, while KL Rahul then cut off Rabada for a maximum as LSG reached 138 for 4 in 17 overs.
The hosts were not given the final push, however, as Curran earned the wicket from Stoinis after winning a video referral following a minor cut to the batsman’s gloves.
Arshdeep Singh then slammed his knuckleball and cleared Rahul, who was long holed out, while Shahrukh Khan picked up another deliberate catch to get rid of Yudhvir Singh.
(This story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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