Punjab Kings beat Lucknow Super Giants, move closer to IPL playoffs

Punjab Kings earned their seventh win of the Indian Premier League (IPL) season and are now close to reaching the playoffs. On Sunday’s second match, they defeated Lucknow Super Giants by 37 runs and climbed to second place on the points table.

Chasing a big target of 237 runs set by Punjab, Lucknow could only score 199 runs for the loss of 7 wickets in their 20 overs. Ayush Badoni scored a half-century, but it wasn’t enough to win the game. Lucknow’s top-order batters were dismissed early during the powerplay, which put them behind in the match.

Punjab’s Arshdeep Singh gave a great start by taking the wickets of Lucknow’s top 3 batters – Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram, and Nicholas Pooran. He took 3 wickets and gave away only 16 runs in his 4 overs. Azmatullah Omarzai took 2 wickets, while Marco Jansen and Yuzvendra Chahal took one each.

Ayush Badoni scored the highest with 74 runs. Abdul Samad added 45, captain Rishabh Pant made 18, Avesh Khan remained not out on 19, and Aiden Markram scored 13 runs.

Earlier, Punjab was invited to bat first after losing the toss. They made a huge total of 236 runs for 5 wickets in 20 overs. Opener Prabhsimran Singh was the top scorer with 91 runs off 48 balls, hitting 6 fours and 7 sixes.

Captain Shreyas Iyer scored 45, Shashank Singh remained not out on 33, and Josh Inglis made 30. Though left-handed opener Priyansh Arya was out early, the rest of the Punjab batters played aggressive cricket. Marcus Stoinis finished the innings with a quick 15 runs off 5 balls.

For Lucknow, Akash Singh and Digvijay Rathi took 2 wickets each, and Prince Yadav got 1 wicket.

With this win, Punjab now has 15 points from 11 games and sits in second place. Lucknow, with only 10 points from 11 games, has dropped to seventh place and their chances of reaching the playoffs are now low.