Xtra Time Web Desk: Lucknow Super Giants defeats Punjab Kings by 21 runs in match 11 of IPL 2024 at Ekana stadium, Lucknow. Playing their first home game at the Ekana Stadium in, LSG named their skipper KL Rahul as the Impact player in an innovative move and made Nicholas Pooran their captain vs Punjab. Pooran said at the toss that the move was aimed at letting Rahul ease into the tournament after a long injury break before the Indian Premier League 2024. Lucknow Debutant Mayank Yadav was adjourned as the player of the match on his debut match. His three wickets played a crucial role is his side’s victory in the match.
Winning the toss, then batting first LSG Opener Quinton de Kock showed his batting prowess, took charge of the innings from one end, while wickets were falling one after the other from the other end. He scored his 21st IPL half century and set the tone for the upcoming batters. Unfortunately, succeeding three batters got out cheaply. All had a good start but couldn’t make those into big totals. Rahul (15) was dropped by Harshal Patel of Kagiso Rabada’s ball earlier in the match but could not take advantage of the second chance. Got out to Arshdeep Singh very Cheaply. Marcus stoinis hit for two consecutive sixes to Rahul chahar, but Chahar gets his man on the very next ball. This brought the six hitting machine Nicholas Pooran to crease, all eyes were on him to step on accelerator. Poraan’s 42 and Krunal Pandya’s fiery 43 off 22 took LSG to 199. Sam curran was the star bowler of LSG for this match. He gave away only 28 runs in his four overs by taking three wickets.
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In response to the 200 runs chase, Punjab made 178 only. Contributions came from top three batters only. Opener Captain Dhawan stood all alone and played the captain’s knock. His dismissal made the result obvious. He made 70 off 50 deliveries. Opener johnny Bairstow (42) together with Dhawan gave a strong start to their team. This chase looked a easy one when the openers were on the crease, but there was a batting collapse later on. Liam Livingstone’s contribution came little late. Lucknow Debutant Mayank Yadav picked 3 wickets and bowled the fastest ball of the tournament so far helping his side win their first home game of the season. Punjab had the chase in the bag with 98/0 in 10 overs but their chase got derailed after wickets of Shikhar Dhawan and Jonny Bairstow.
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