Shreyas Iyer’s unbeaten half-century helps Punjab beat Lucknow by 8 wickets
LUCKNOW, India (AP) — Shreyas Iyer hit his second straight half-century for the Punjab Kings on Tuesday in an eight-wicket win over the Lucknow Super Giants in the Indian Premier League.
The Punjab captain scored 52 not out off 30 balls, including three fours and four sixes, helping his team to victory with 22 balls to spare.
Punjab finished with 177-2 in 16.2 overs, after Lucknow was restricted to 171-7 in 20 overs. Left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh picked 3-43 for the Kings.
The chase was also made easier by opener Prabhsimran Singh’s 69 off 34 balls, including nine fours and three sixes.
Impact player Nehal Wadhera scored 43 not out off 25 balls, hitting four sixes as well, and put on 67 off 37 balls with Iyer to wrap up the chase in whirlwind fashion for Punjab.
Punjab climbed to second in the points’ table behind Royal Challengers Bengaluru on run-rate. Lucknow is sixth.
Put into bat, Lucknow suffered early losses — Mitchell Marsh was out caught off Singh for a golden duck.
Skipper Rishabh Pant’s lean patch continued as he was caught for two runs — trying a wild swing off Glenn Maxwell.
In between, Aiden Markram (28) and Nicholas Pooran stitched together 31 off 19 balls, before Markram was castled by Lockie Ferguson.
Pooran and Ayush Badoni then put on 54 off 40 balls to rescue the innings from 35-3 in the fifth over.
Badoni hit three sixes to score 41 off 33 balls, while Pooran made 44 off 30 balls to climb atop the run-scoring charts. He hit five fours and two sixes before being out caught off Yuzvendra Chahal in the 12th over.
Badoni held one end together, and Lucknow was able to cross 150 thanks to cameos from David Miller (19) and Abdul Samad (27 off 12 balls).
Punjab’s reply was strong despite losing opener Priyansh Arya for eight – Prabhsimran Singh sped off to 50 off 23 balls, his first of the season.
In the third over, Singh and Iyer put on 84 off 44 balls to blow away the Lucknow bowling challenge.
Wrist spinner Digvesh Rathi found some success with 2-30 in four overs — he got both openers, with Singh out caught in the 11th over.
It only opened the floodgates for Punjab, as Iyer and Wadhera stepped further on the accelerator and made light work of the chase.
Iyer had made 97 not out in his first game for Punjab.
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