Dharamsala, May 5 (PTI) Punjab Kings head coach Ricky Ponting revealed it was skipper Shreyas Iyer’s tactical call to promote Josh Inglis to number 3 to counter Lucknow Super Giants’ tearaway pacer Mayank Yadav.
To everyone’s surprise Inglis, who has batted mostly in the middle order this season, walked in during the very first over after opener Priyansh Arya fell cheaply and immediately set the tone for PBKS’ innings.
The Australian wicketkeeper-batter smashed a 14-ball 30, which included four sixes — three of them coming in successive deliveries off Mayank in the second over.
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“It was actually a move that the captain came up with,” Ponting told the media after PBKS’ 37-run win.
“He thought on that sort of pitch, against that bowling attack, that it would be the right thing to, if a wicket fell early, to send Inglis in. We felt that Mayank would bowl early on. If you look at the way he bowls, he generally bowls reasonably short. And that’s one of Inglis’ great strengths, as you saw tonight. Those pull shots were pretty amazing straight away.”
Opener Prabhsimran Singh (91 off 48 balls) once again made a significant contribution, while Iyer (45 off 25 balls) and a collective middle-order effort helped Punjab post a challenging 236 for five.
“It then also allows us to have Iyer, Nehal Wadhera and Shashank Singh through the middle of the innings, which is what we thought would be crucial for us in tonight’s game as well,” Ponting said.
“It was probably a surprise call for LSG to see Inglis go out at number 3 and it paid off for us tonight. So once we got off to a start, I think we were 70-odd at the end of the powerplay, all the momentum was going with us.”
“You see with our batting, you know, we’ve got someone like Azmatullah Omarzai at No.9. So we bat really, really deep and it allows our top order to play with a lot of freedom. And they did that tonight. And, you know, to bat first and get that sort of total was a great effort.”
PBKS have batted with flair this season with their opening pair of Pryansh and Prabhsimran doing extremely well.
“We’ve just given some really clear direction of the way that we want them to play to understand how important top order partnerships are in this competition. And we know that if Priyansh and Prabh get going together, that they can be ultra destructive.”
Prabhsimran has established himself at the top of the order over the past couple of seasons after warming the bench during initial years. He has emerged as PBKS’ highest run-getter this season with 437 runs in 11 innings at a strike rate of 170.03.
“Priyansh mainly, probably more against the faster bowlers, and Prabh is as good a hitter or spinner as anybody going around. So they complement each other really well, being left hand, right hand, and one probably being slightly better against the quicks, another against spin. It’s a really good combination”
LSG batter Ayush Badoni admitted that losing three wickets in the powerplay proved costly in their defeat to Punjab Kings.
Chasing a target in excess of 200, LSG needed strong performances from their explosive top order, which featured Mitchell Marsh, Nicholas Pooran, and Aiden Markram.
However, Punjab pacer Arshdeep Singh produced a sensational spell with the new ball, removing all three inside the powerplay and reducing LSG to 37 for 3.
“I think we could have controlled 10-15 more runs, but the target was still chaseable. The wicket was very good,” Badoni said after the match.
“Our powerplay didn’t go well. Had we started better, the result could have gone either way,” he added. Coming in at No. 5, Ayush Badoni scored a fighting 74 off 40 balls. Along with Abdul Samad (45), the duo provided LSG a glimmer of hope in the steep chase.
“When Samad and I were playing, I was just thinking how I can make my team win. I like to prerform in pressure situation.”
