As it happened - Prabhsimran and Arshdeep take PBKS to No. 2 on the table

Punjab Kings (PBKS) are marching towards a spot in the playoffs, moving up to No. 2 on the table. They dispatched one of their main rivals Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) with a power-packed batting performance, scoring 236 for 5, and winning by 37 runs.

A slower ball messes with the power-hitters swing and a shot meant to go through midwicket ends up back in the bowler's hands. Marco Jansen strikes. Just in case anybody's still watching.

LSG have had 15 fifty partnerships this IPL. Eight for the top two wickets. Seven for the rest. They've been very top heavy and today their top order was blown away.

Ayush Badoni and Abdul Samad are not interested in throwing in the towel. They've put on a partnership worth 53 in 25. That's a run rate of 12.72. The required rate is 18.5 though.

There is more than half the innings still left to play but LSG's chance of victory, according to ESPNcricinfo's forecaster is 0.13%.

Guess being 73 for 5 is bad chasing 237. David Miller's gone. They are down to their last specialist batting pair.

Rishabh Pant falls for 18 off 17. And it is a spectacle. He backs away to open up the off side. He flashes. He flashes so hard he actually loses control of the bat. It flies almost half the distance the ball does in the exact opposite direction. Pant's bat is at midwicket. The ball is caught at deep cover. Nine of his 11 innings this season have yielded fewer than 25 runs.

That's their lowest powerplay score this season.

PBKS managed six sixes and four fours in the first six overs. Back then it looked like a flat pitch.

LSG have had to bat against the ball moving around, and bouncing sharply.

Arshdeep, Jansen and Omarzai are genuine swing bowlers. That's their strength so they went looking for it.

Mayank and Avesh are not swing bowlers. Akash is but he was finding success with his cutters. So LSG didn't really go looking for movement.

Plus maybe the atmospheric conditions have changed slightly.

Mitchell Marsh and Aiden Markram - two of their three highest scores - are back in the hut.

A power-packed batting performance from Punjab Kings, led by Prabhsimran Singh's 91 off 48 balls, took them to a total of 236 for 5 against Lucknow Super Giants.

Shreyas Iyer actually wanted to bowl at the toss. But he said he was "up for the competition" and it seemed so was his team. They hit 34 boundaries in the innings (16 fours and 18 sixes) en route to their 11th total of 200-plus in the IPL. Only Mumbai Indians have more.

Prabhsimran was the architect of this chaos. He attacked nine of his first 15 deliveries and in that time he could've been dismissed for 22 off 11. Nicholas Pooran put down a skier. When a similar ball came down just seconds later, Prabhsimran played the same shot and found the straight boundary. He's an intent machine with a very short memory. He made his third fifty on the trot having come into this IPL with only four fifty-plus scores in his entire career. There was a small period when Prabhsimran stalled. He got to 45 off 24 balls. Then made only 8 off 11 but made up for that hitting 38 off his last 13 deliveries.

The batters at the other end matched Prabhsimran's fire. In fact, every time LSG took a wicket, the new man in hit a boundary within two deliveries, leaving the visitors with no place to hide. Shreyas Iyer once again showed he's a changed man. Until IPL 2024, he was striking at 125. Since then, he's been striking at 163. That's not come at the cost of his productivity. He averaged 32 before. Now it's 44.

Mayank Yadav went for 60 runs in his four overs, the joint-worst figures by an LSG bowler in IPL. Avesh Khan leaked 26 runs in the 19th over, which included three fours and two sixes. Digvesh Rathi went for 40-plus in only one of his first nine matches. In his last two, he's gone for 48 and 46. At a time when they need to be peaking, LSG are floundering. Their best hope now is that their top order fires.

Digvesh Rathi had gone for 40 runs in his spell only once in his first nine matches this season. In his last two, he's been hit for 48 and 46 runs.

Avesh Khan got taken down in the 18th over

Prince Yadav finds a little bit of reverse swing and bowls Nehal Wadhera round his legs. But it's not really the time to slow down. PBKS have a set batter out there and their finisher to partner him. They should be looking for 220-230. ESPNcricinfo's forecaster says they'll finish on 217.

Prabhsimran was 45 off 24 balls. The 24th ball was his last boundary. Since then, he's only made 8 runs in 11 balls. He makes up for that deceleration by taking down Digvesh Rathi in the 15th over.

Shreyas Iyer had a strike rate of 125 in the IPL until 2024. Over the last two seasons though, he's upped it to 163. That hasn't come at the cost of his productivity though. He averaged 32 until 2024. He's averaging 47 since then. He's discovered himself.

This year, until tonight, he had not lost his wicket to a spinner (scoring 142 runs in 87 balls at a SR of 163). Digvesh Rathi changes that. But in comes Nehal Wadhera and puts the pressure back on the bowler.

The fielding restrictions have lifted but Prabhsimran is only gathering pace. He's actually got a better strike rate in the middle overs (7 to 16) - 176 - than in the first six - 164 this IPL

Prabhsimran has looked to hit a boundary off nine of the 15 balls he's faced so far. That's his role at the top of the order. He performs it regardless of what's happening at the other end - his IPL hundred was a beaut, made it while he kept losing partners. He performs it even when the ball isn't right in the slot. That's why he was almost caught for 22 off 11. Pooran at mid-off dropped a skier. Prabh played the same shot later in the over and got a boundary. Pure intent machine. Short memory.

LSG had Mayank bowling to the short leg side boundary. He's gone for runs. But his willingness to take that punishment has helped the guy at the other end. The rookie. Akash Singh strikes again. Inglis is gone. We've established he loves taking on the short ball from the quicks. He backed himself to clear the 68m boundary at square leg. He came up short.

On first impression, Akash has more than meets the eye. He baited Inglis to hit to the long boundary. He wasn't fazed when Prabhsimpran shaped to scoop him. He has good control of length and the left-armer's angle. His under-pressure ball is the offcutter.

The higher altitude grounds do encourage the ball to just fly - Joburg is famous for that - and PBKS are proving Dharamsala is not too far behind. Prabhsimram Singh takes down Mayank Yadav now.

A measure how changed a bowler Mayank has become because of all the injuries he's sustained is that his refuge when he comes under pressure is to take pace off. But Prabh waits for it and smacks that for six too.

The third of those sixes could have been a catch though had Avesh Khan been standing on the boundary at square leg. Mayank is only bowling mid to late 130 kph in his first over and he went short every single ball to Inglis. Australian batters don't mind that length, and certainly not at that pace.

Akash Singh the debutant strikes. He had a big smile on his face when the brand new ball was given to him. Now he celebrates by pointing to himself and then at the ground as if to say he belongs.

There is some swing on offer in Dharamsala and a good length ball that Arya thought he could hit on the up ends dragging him to play maybe a little more away from his body than he'd like and gets caught at deep third.

A measure of how big that wicket is - Arya has made 300-plus runs at a 190-plus strike rate this season. Only Nicholas Pooran has been that effective and that destructive. And Pooran is into his ninth year as an international cricketer and seventh year as an IPL cricketer.

PBKS pull a little surprise by promoting Josh Inglis.

Lucknow Super Giants won the toss and chose to bowl against Punjab Kings because that "gives them the advantage of seeing how the game unfolds."

If that suggests a tinge of uncertainty, it's likely to do with the conditions in Dharamsala. This is its first match of IPL 2025 and there has been rain in the two leads leading into this game. Shreyas Iyer, the PBKS captain, noted that there was moisture in the pitch to start with and that he too would've preferred to bowl.

PBKS have a chance to go up to second place with a win on Sunday night and in service of that, they brought Marcus Stoinis back into the XI. LSG were sitting outside the top four heading into the game and could go up to fifth place with a win. They handed a debut to Akash Singh, a left-arm seam bowler who played six matches for CSK in IPL 2023. Ravi Bishnoi has been left out, which suggests they feel the pitch won't offer a lot to the spinners.

Punjab Kings: Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Shreyas Iyer (capt), Josh Inglis (wk), Shashank Singh, Nehal Wadhera, Marcus Stoinis, Azmatullah Omarzai, Marco Jansen, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh

PBKS bench: Vijaykumar Vyshak, Harpreet Brar, Pravin Dubey, Suryansh Shedge, Xavier Bartlett

Lucknow Super Giants: Rishabh Pant (capt & wk), Nicholas Pooran, David Miller, Aiden Markram, Ayush Badoni, Abdul Samad, Akash Singh, Avesh Khan, Mayank Yadav, Prince Yadav, Digvesh Rathi

LSG bench: Ravi Bishnoi, Mitchell Marsh, Himmat Singh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Matthew Breetzke