Dharamshala, May 4 (IANS) Opener Prabhsimran Singh continued his great run in IPL 2025 with a sublime 91 off 48 balls as Punjab Kings (PBKS) posted a massive 236/5 in their 20 overs against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the HPCA Stadium on Sunday.
Though Prabhsimran missed out on hitting his second IPL century, his exhilarating boundary-hitting – 60% of his runs coming through off-side, propelled PBKS to their 11th 200-plus total in the tournament. He was well-supported by cameos from Josh Inglis (30), Shreyas Iyer (45), Nehal Wadhera (16), Shashank Singh (33 not out) and Marcus Stoinis (15 not out), as PBKS amassed 75 runs off the last five overs.
For LSG, left-arm pacer Akash Singh was the only standout bowler – bowling his four overs on the trot to pick 2-30 and managed to keep his economy rate below 10. PBKS were dealt an early blow when Priyansh Arya sliced an away swinging ball from Akash Singh to deep third man. Josh Inglish took a liking to Mayank Yadav’s pace and short balls by smacking him for three sixes – including being given a reprieve by Avesh Khan at square leg in the second over.
Prabhsimran then orchestrated Mayank’s takedown by slashing, clubbing and slicing to collect two sixes and a four. Akash struck again in power-play by having Inglis pull straight to square leg and dismiss him for a14-ball 30. After being given a reprieve when Nicholas Pooran dropped his catch at mid-off, Prabhsimran took charge by muscling Avesh Khan, Digvesh Rathi and Prince Yadav for boundaries, before getting his fifty off 30 balls.
From the other end, Shreyas Iyer continued his good runs by hitting boundaries at will – with his sixes off Prince and Digvesh being the standout shots. But against the run of play, Iyer looked to slice off Rathi, but was caught by point. Prabhsimran made up for a mini slowdown by slog-sweeping Digvesh for a brace of sixes, before pulling Prince for another maximum.
Prince, though, had something to cheer by uprooting Nehal Wadhera’s leg-stump with a pin-point yorker. Shashank Singh joined the run-scoring party by smacking Mayank for four and six, including sending the ball outside stadium. While Prabhsimran pulled and lofted Avesh for a brace of sixes apart from a lucky edge flying for four, Shashank scooped and edged for his two boundaries, as 26 runs came off the 18th over, with PBKS crossing 200-mark.
Just when it looked like he would get a century, Prabhsimran’s attempt to reverse-sweep Rathi ended up in extra cover taking a diving catch, as he fell for a brilliant 91. Marcus Stoinis lofted Avesh for six, before Shashank picked a four via scoop to end a brilliant batting for PBKS laced with a whopping 34 boundaries.
Brief Scores: Punjab Kings 236/5 in 20 overs (Prabhsimran Singh 91, Shreyas Iyer 45; Akash Singh 2-30, Digvesh Rathi 2-46) against Lucknow Super Giants
–IANS
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