It was an exciting match between the Lucknow Super Giants and the Punjab Kings in Match 21 of the TATA IPL 2023 held at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow. Punjab Kings, after two consecutive losses, emerged victorious by two wickets against the Super Giants. The Super Giants won the toss and elected to bat first, but their total of 159/8 was not enough to defend against the Kings.
The Kings had a shaky start as they lost opener Atharva Taide in the first over to a catch at third man by debutant Yudhvir Singh. However, Matthew Short hit Avesh Khan for three fours in the second over, showing that they were not going down without a fight. Prabhsimran Singh, who hit a four off Yudhvir, was dismissed by him in the next ball, putting the Kings in a tough spot.
Short continued to attack, hitting the first six of the innings off Gowtham, but Gowtham had him caught at mid-off two balls later. Despite this, the Kings remained resolute and scored 45/3 at the end of Powerplay. The Super Giants kept things tight, allowing just 23 runs off the next four overs as the Kings reached 68/3 at the halfway mark. The pressure built as Harpreet Singh Bhatia tried to up the scoring rate but holed out to deep backward square leg off Krunal Pandya.
The Kings' hope lay with Sikandar Raza, who played a brilliant knock of 57 (41) under pressure. He hit two sixes and a four off Krunal Pandya's over to make it 17 off the over. Raza brought up his maiden IPL fifty off 34 balls. However, Ravi Bishnoi had Raza caught at deep backward square leg and gave away just three runs, putting the Kings in a difficult position.
Shahrukh Khan started off in style with a thumping six over long-on off his first ball. He took nine runs off the Avesh Khan over as Raza crashed a four off the last ball of the over to bring the equation down to 23 off 18. With 7 needed off 6, Shahrukh heaved the first ball from Bishnoi to deep mid-wicket and scampered through for a quick two. He then hit one uppishly to long on where Hooda charged forward for a catch but ended up putting in a brilliant effort to stop it as the batters took another couple. Shahrukh (23* off 10) then finished off the match with 3 needed as he cracked one wide of long off for a four to win it for PBKS by 2 wickets.
Earlier, Punjab Kings captain Sam Curran, who was leading the side in place of the injured Shikhar Dhawan, won the toss and elected to bowl. They made four changes to the starting XI, bringing in Atharva Taide, Harpreet Singh Bhatia, Sikandar Raza, and Rahul Chahar to replace Prabhsimran Singh, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, and Rishi Dhawan. Lucknow Super Giants made two changes to their starting eleven, bringing in Ayush Badoni and Yudhvir Singh Charak to replace Jaydev Unadkat and Amit Mishra. Although Super Giants' openers Kyle Mayers and KL Rahul got off to a good start, they were unable to post a big total, and their total of 159/8 proved insufficient.
Overall, it was a thrilling match with both teams putting up a display of skill and determination. The Kings' bowling attack did well to restrict the Super Giants to a below-par score, and despite losing early wickets, they managed to keep their cool and chase down the target with just two wickets to spare.
Sikandar Raza's knock was crucial to the Kings' victory, and Shahrukh Khan played a brilliant cameo towards the end to seal the win. The Super Giants will be disappointed with their performance, especially their middle-order collapse, but they can take some positives from KL Rahul's form and their overall bowling effort.
The TATA IPL 2023 has been full of surprises so far, with several close matches and unexpected results. It will be interesting to see how the teams perform in the coming matches and whether any new stars emerge.