Lucknow Super Giants 199 for 8 (de Kock 54, Krunal 43*, Curran 3-28) beat Punjab Kings 178 for 5 (Dhawan 70, Mayank 3-27, Mohsin 2-34) by 21 runs
Justin Langer has arrived in the IPL. It took just one game of tired-old T20 cricket, and the consequent heavy defeat of course, for Lucknow Super Giants to burn that book of conservative T20 cricket and play with much higher intent. As a result they didn’t have the ideal players operating in the death overs of each innings, but they had done enough damage in the middle overs on both occasions to win by 21 runs.
The 103 that LSG scored in the middle overs is the second-highest in their history; both the efforts featured Nicholas Pooran and Marcus Stoinis batting a higher number of balls unlike in the first match when they were held back for the death overs. With the ball, LSG unleashed Mayank Yadav’s extreme pace – highest being 155.8kmph – and awkward bounce to take five wickets for 84. As it turned out, they lost out on some runs in the final few overs and had to bowl Krunal Pandya in the 19th, but the game was over by then.
Full report to follow…
Source: ESPN Crickinfo