The Punjab Kings suffered their second consecutive defeat of the season as Lucknow Super Giants snatched the win despite a fine start by the skipper Shikhar Dhawan along with Jonny Bairstow who notched a century-run partnership during the chase at the Ekana Sports City, Lucknow.
Speaking at the post-match presentations, Dhawan reckoned that the injury to Liam Livingstone proved to be a massive blow to the visitors during their chase as he was their original number four batter. He said,” They played well, pity that Livingstone got injured, that hurt us, and he would have come at 4″.
The English pinch-hitter had picked up an injury during the first innings when on the field. During the powerplay, he seems to have pulled his hamstring which led to him being out for the rest of the first innings.
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Reflecting on the second innings, Dhawan suggested that they started off well and the debutant Mayank Yadav managed to grab his attention with his pace. He also revealed his plans against him. He mentioned,” We started off well, but Mayank bowled well with his pace. It was nice facing him, I was surprised at his pace, but I wanted to use his pace against him, but he bowled the bouncers and the yorkers well”.
Assessing the conditions at Lucknow, Dhawan had revealed that he told the batters to use the pace and make the best use of the shorter side of the boundary but credited the youngster’s presence of mind to tackle the plan. He added,” I was quite mindful, and asked the batters to use the short side and use his pace, but he bowled into his body (on Bairstow’s dismissal) and got him out, I said the same to Jitesh as well”.
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Dhawan also credited Mohsin’s contributions where he picked up two wickets in consecutive deliveries to get rid of the PBKS skipper along with Sam Curran to put the visitors under pressure. He mentioned,” But Mohsin bowled really well, he kept a good length and suffocated us”.
The captain concluded by highlighting the need of improve their catching skills. In the previous game against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Bairstow had dropped Kohli early on and in today’s game, Rahul was dropped at slips early in the powerplay. He said,” We will have to analyse these defeats, the drop catch did cost us some momentum. That’s something we’ll have to improve going forward”.
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The Punjab Kings will now head to Ahmedabad where they look to bounce back as they take on Shubman Gill’s Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium on April 4.
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