Prabhsimran 91, Arshdeep's new-ball spell take PBKS towards playoffs

Punjab Kings (PBKS) are marching towards a spot in the IPL 2025 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.

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 sixes and 18 fours - en route their 11th total of 200-plus in the IPL. Only Mumbai Indians (MI) have more.

Prabhsimran Singh was the architect of this chaos. He attacked nine of his first 15 deliveries, and in that time he could have been dismissed for 22 off 11 balls. But 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 is an intent machine with a very short memory. He made his third fifty on the trot, having come into this season with only four fifty-plus scores in his IPL career.

There was a small period when Prabhsimran stalled. He got to 45 off 24 balls. Then made only 8 from the next 11 balls. but made up for that by 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 partnership began with a boundary within two deliveries, leaving the visitors with no place to hide. Iyer once again showed he is a changed man. Until IPL 2024, he was striking at 125. Since then, he has been striking at 163. That has not come at the cost of his productivity. He averaged 32 before. Now it's 44.

Shashank Singh played the perfect cameo, 33* off 15 balls, which included a six off Mayank Yadav that legit tried to scale up to one of the Dharamsala mountain tops.

Mayank went for 60 runs in his four overs, the joint-worst figures by an LSG bowler in the 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 has gone for 48 and 46. At a time when they need to be peaking, LSG were floundering. Their best hope was that their top order fired.

Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram and Pooran had made 63% of all their team's runs coming into this game. Arshdeep Singh knocked two of them out in the third over, and returned for the last man standing. LSG were reduced to 38 for 3, their lowest powerplay score this season. Rishabh Pant fell for 18 off 17 balls, his ninth score below 25 in 11 innings. His dismissal was a spectacle. He swung so hard at the ball that he lost control of the bat, which flew out to midwicket while the catch was taken at deep cover.

There was more than half the innings left to play when ESPNcricinfo's forecaster suggested that LSG's chances of winning was down at 0.13%. Guess being 73 for 5 is bad chasing 237. The last specialist batting pair they had - Ayush Badoni (74 off 40 deliveries) and Abdul Samad - delayed the inevitable by putting on a partnership of 81 in 41 balls.