The two paced red soil pitch in Lucknow is batter friendly, but Lucknow Super Giants never recovered from both power plays, the first with the bat, and then with the ball in defending their below par total of 171 for 7 wickets after being invited to bat first.
The departure of Mitch Marsh for no score off the bowling of Arshdeep Singh had its toll in the power play overs as the home team struggled on 39 for 3 at the end of six overs with Marsh, Markram and skipper Rishab Pant off duty with the willow back in the hutch.
Nicholas Poram 44 with Ayush Badoni 41 proved to the top 3 batters that the pitch condition was batter friendly, whilst Abdul Samad, who made 27, must have got the top order regret their folly with the bat.
Nicholas Poram, the orange cap recipient, admitted at the mid break that 172 on the given pitch conditions was a below par score.
Arshdeep Singh, the left arm seamer was the pick of the bowlers in the Shreyas Iyer led PBKS camp with 3 scalps for 42. However, Lockie Ferguson 1 for 26, Marco Jansen 1 for 28, Glenn Maxwell 1 for 22 and Yuvenra Charl 1 for 32 bowled with intent for the winners, Punjab Kings.
Markram, who made 28 for Lucknow Super Giants, could have batted deeper, taking into consideration his experience in tricky situations whilst David Miller dismissal for 19 exposed the tail a tag too early.
172 was never a problem for the Punjab Kings. They got the job done in 16.2 overs for the loss of 2 wickets and winning this game comprehensively by 8 wickets.
Skipper Shreyas Iyer was in good nick for 52 off 30 balls, Prabhsimran Singh 69, and India’s raw talent in Nehal Wadera not out on 43, made it look too easy and a one sided contest.
PBKS moved up to the second ranking in the teams’ points table, and that too with a plus run rate of 1.48
