Dharamsala, May 5: The pint-sized Prabhsimran Singh packed a mean punch in his strokes as Punjab Kings posted an imposing 236 for 5 against Lucknow Super Giants in an important IPL match here on Sunday.
The young opener blasted his way to 48-ball 91 with the help of six fours and seven sixes even as Punjab Kings would certainly feel that they scored 15 runs above par keeping the track into account.
The Punjab keeper-batter should have got his second IPL hundred but an ambitious switch hit off Digvesh Rathi saw him head back to the pavilion, nine runs short of what would have been a deserving milestone.
Towards the end, Shashank Singh scored 33 off 15 balls to take PBKS to what looks like an unassailable total. There were 16 sixes hit by Pujab Kings with 13 coming off pacers.
Mayank Yadav, in fact, accounted for half a dozen of them going for 60 in his four overs.
The LSG batting unit, which has performed well below par after the first stage of the tournament, will need to bat out of their skins to chase down the target.
However, LSG had started on a confident note with Priyansh Arya (1) sent back to a well-thought plan with left-arm seamer Akash Singh bowling a nice outswinger, slightly out of his hitting arc. Priyansh plays with bare minimum footwork and Mayank Yadav at deep backward point held onto a sitter.
Prabhsimran was initially a passive partner as it was Australian Jos Inglis who launched the first attack with a hat-trick of sixes off Mayank Yadav, whose speed has decreased by at least 15 kmph post his intense rehab under Nitin Patel at the BCCI’s erstwhile National Cricket Academy to recover from back injury.
However, once Inglis was dismissed, Prabhsimran, along with skipper Shreyas Iyer (45 off 25 balls), took control of the game. They were only helped by some atrocious fielding from Avesh Khan, who would probably go down as the worst fielder in the 18-year history of IPL.
Adding insult to injury, Prabhsimran took the tall MP fast bowler to the cleaners as he was pulled over mid-wicket for back-to-back maximums. Khan went for 57 in four overs and if around 15 runs due to his misfielding is added, he caused the maximum damage for his team.
The duo of Prabhsimran and Iyer added 78 runs in 7.5 overs before Rathi, LSG’s best bowler on view, became the first spinner in the current season to account for Punjab Kings skipper’s wicket.
But Prabhsimran continued like a man possessed and LSG bowlers were guilty of feeding to his strengths throughout the innings. (PTI)
