Lucknow Super Giants beat Punjab Kings by 21 runs on Saturday (30th March). They registered their first win of the season and got off the mark in the points table. Cameos from Nicholas Pooran and Krunal Pandya and a superb spell from the debutant Mayank Yadav gave them a commending victory.

Mayank Yadav
Earlier, LSG opted to bat first after winning the toss. KL Rahula and Devdutt Padikkal threw away their starts at the start of the innings. QDK batted sensibly at the top and scored a fantastic 54 off only 38 balls. Stoinis came at number 4 but couldn’t make it bigger as Chahar knocked him over. It was Nicholas Pooran who gave life to the innings.

His onslaught of 42 off 21 before being rattled by Rabada gave LSG a good impetus to the innings. At the backend of the innings, Krunal Pandya teared apart Punjab bowlers to race to 43 from 22 balls and Lucknow Super Giants posted 199 runs on the board.

In reply, Dhawan and Bairstow came wll guns blazing and dominated the powerplay. Both the batters attacked the bowlers from the outset and had a partnership of 102 runs. Just when the chase looked in Punjab's control, debutant Mayank Yadav came to breath fire and bowled an inspiring spell. He hit 150 kph frequently mark and rattled the Punjab batters with raw pace and bounce.

He broke the opening partnership and then had two more to brought LSG back into the game. Shikhar Dhawan was watching wickets are being tumbling at other ends. Punjab collapsed under pressure and lost the plot entirely to lose the match by 21 runs.