IPL 2025: Punjab Kings show swagger with all-round display against lacklustre Lucknow Super Giants | Ipl News

Punjab Kings bowlers get regular wickets on the red-soil pitch before Prabhsimran Singh, Shreyas Iyer and Nehal Wadhera muscle through the chase for a routine eight-wicket win over Lucknow Super Giants.After a lot of talk about the tournament being loaded in favour of the batsmen, Punjab Kings bowlers capitalised on the red-soil pitch at the Ekana Stadium, which had a reasonable amount of grass cover and offered something for the bowlers. With an easy subsequent chase, Shreyas Iyer’s side stormed to an eight-wicket victory over Lucknow Super Giants on Tuesday.
Wickets at the right time
The varied strengths of Punjab’s bowling line-up, and skipper Iyer’s utilisation of the resources at his disposal, allowed his team to take crucial wickets at the right time, choking the home team’s line-up in the process.
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The first wicket came in the first over itself. Before he was hammered in the death overs, Arshdeep Singh made good use of the conditions. The Punjab seamer foxed Mitch Marsh hitting the deck with a ball that was supposed to be the in-swinger but shaped away a touch, with the Australian batter only managing a leading edge and immediately putting his own team under pressure.

#PBKS bowlers understood the assignment
A superb start @PunjabKingsIPL sees #LSG at 39/3 after 6 overs #TATAIPL | #LSGvPBKS pic.twitter.com/Hbnkc7eeQ2
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 1, 2025
After Lockie Ferguson picked up Aiden Markram, the next crucial wicket came in the Powerplay too; this time from a so-called part-timer. Much is made of Glenn Maxwell’s streaky form with the bat, but he has become quite an effective spinner. According to data from CricViz, he is the second-most impactful spinner in the IPL since 2023. And he has been especially good at baiting Rishabh Pant, snagging him for the fourth time in five innings in the IPL.
Bringing Maxwell on in the Powerplay may have seemed a bit of a punt, but it worked as Pant was caught at short fine leg off a half-tracker.
The next wicket would be even more crucial. Red-hot Nicolas Pooran was looking to tee off and pull off a saviour act for Lucknow after their poor Powerplay, but Yuzvendra Chahal would get him before he could really make a big impact.
For much of his spell, Chahal seemed like an expensive wr-spinning luxury at Rs 18 crore for Punjab, but his knack of finding wickets may have turned the match on Tuesday. Having been pummelled for 18 in his previous over Pooran, he did not change his approach, continuing to bait the left-hander to hit his wide googlies. Bowling one a touch wider and slower – with Pooran needing to go after him as the run rate wasn’t satisfactory as Ayush Badoni wasn’t in good rhythm – he would mishit it to long-off and depart reasonably early after a well-made 30-ball 44. Chahal’s persence may have saved Punjab around 20 runs.

Outfoxing his opponent, ft. Yuzvendra Chahal #TATAIPL’s leading wicket-taker gets the HUGE scalp of Nicholas Pooran #LSGvPBKS | @PunjabKingsIPL | @yuzi_chahal pic.twitter.com/WGgc84j0rC
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 1, 2025
When Marco Jansen, brought in after David Miller had attacked the spinners with ease, found bounce and seam to find the outside edge of his compatriot’s bat to leave Lucknow’s middle order fangless for the death, it capped off a solid all-round bowling performance with the right strategies combined with exemplary execution.Story continues below this ad
Toothless bowling, routine chase
Badoni would redeem himself a bit with a few big hits, and Abdul Samad, with a 12-ball 27, would provide Lucknow with a late cameo that dragged them to a score of 171. The total may have been defendable with early wickets and pressure, but it was not to be.
Neither did Lucknow’s bowling have some of the X-factor nor did Punjab’s batting suffer any major brain-fades like the one made Pant. It ended up being less of a chase and more of a canter.
At the end of the first innings, Arshdeep had mentioned that there was a bit of bounce and seam to aid the fast bowlers. But the opposing skipper, Pant, did not trust his seamers much. The first 10 overs saw only four overs of seam, with six successive overs of spin. At the half-way mark, with the score at 110/1, Punjab’s top order had already run away with the game.
Prabhsimran Singh’s 34-ball 69 would power Punjab to the total, and be a showcase of all things T20 – switch-hits, scoops over the head, slog-sweeps, manipulation of the spinners square of the wicket – the works. Iyer would swagger in with some of his conventional, aesthetically-pleasing hitting; a swivel-hook for six over fine-leg, and a back-foot lofted cover drive for four being two of the highlights.Story continues below this ad
the time Iyer anchored the chase, alongside Nehal Wadhera, to round out the eight-wicket win with 22 deliveries to spare, enough became apparent to make an early appraisal for both sides.
After hitting a near-250 total on a belter in Ahmedabad, Punjab won through the might of their bowlers in a relatively low-scoring affair this time around. It shows they have struck the right balance, with a team that has the ability to do well across various conditions, and a captain in rich form; they look like early contenders.
Lucknow have a bit to worry about. Missing plenty of their preferred seamers to injury, they do not seem to have the right team for their home conditions, and their spinners have seemed largely ineffective so far. Add to that the captain’s woes, short of runs and looking unsure of his place in the batting line-up. They may be in dire need of fresh strategy and new plans.

Brief scores: Lucknow Super Giants 171/7 in 20 overs (Pooran 44, Badoni 41; Arshdeep 3/43, Maxwell 1/22) lost to Punjab Kings 177/2 in 16.2 overs (Prabhsimran 69, Iyer 52; Rathi 2/30) eight wickets.