Punjab Kings, who have lost the last two matches due to poor batting performance, will look to improve in this department when they take on Lucknow Supergiants in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match here on Saturday.
Punjab had made a great start to the season by winning the first two but failed to post big scores and lost the last two matches. Apart from captain Shikhar Dhawan, none of his other batsmen is able to make useful contribution. The main reason for Punjab’s low score is not being able to score fast runs in the middle overs.
Apart from this, the team is leaving a lot of balls empty. In the last match itself, he left 56 balls empty in which the team needs to improve. Dhawan played innings of 40, 86 not out and 99 not out in the first three matches but the rest of the team’s batsmen have lacked consistency.
Young opener Prabhsimran Singh did well in the first match but failed thereafter. Matthew Short and Jitesh Sharma are unable to convert good starts into big scores. While the batsmen have disappointed the Punjab team, the bowling attack led by Arshdeep Singh has done well. It was Arshdeep and England’s Sam Curran who took the match down to the very last ball, defending a relatively low score in the previous match against Gujarat Titans. Among the spinners, Harpreet Brar and Rahul Chahar are also doing well. As far as Lucknow is concerned, it will try to reach the top of the points table by completing a hat-trick of victories in this match. Lucknow skipper KL Rahul is struggling to score runs but his other players are doing well.
In the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad, where Krunal Pandya showed an all-round game, in the last match against Royal Challengers Bangalore, the team achieved a big target with the help of Nicholas Pooran’s 19-ball 62. Lucknow’s batting looks balanced with opener Kyle Myers apart from Marcus Stoinis, Pooran and Ayush Badoni making useful contributions in the middle order.
Deepak Hooda, however, has been unsuccessful so far. Among the bowlers, Mark Wood and Avesh Khan have handled the pace department well while among the spinners, Ravi Bishnoi, Amit Mishra and Pandya have played their roles well.
Team Punjab Kings: Shikhar Dhawan (Captain), Arshdeep Singh, Baltej Singh, Rahul Chahar, Sam Curran, Rishi Dhawan, Nathan Ellis, Gurnoor Brar, Harpreet Brar, Harpreet Singh, Vidwath Kaverappa, Liam Livingstone, Mohit Rathi, Prabhsimran Singh, Kagiso Rabada, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, M Shahrukh Khan, Jitesh Sharma, Shivam Singh, Mathew Short, Sikandar Raza, Atharva Taide. Lucknow Supergiants: KL Rahul (c & wk), Kyle Mayers, Deepak Hooda, Kunal Pandya, Amit Mishra, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Naveen-ul-Haq, Ayush Badoni, Avesh Khan, Karan Sharma, Yudhveer Charak, Yash Thakur, Romario Shepherd , Mark Wood, Swapnil Singh, Manan Vohra, Daniel Symes, Prerak Mankad, Krishnappa Gautam, Jaydev Unadkat, Marcus Stoinis, Ravi Bishnoi, Mayank Yadav. The match will start at 7:30 pm Indian time.
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