Dharamshala, May 5 (H.S.): Punjab Kings commenced their home leg of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2025) in a spectacular manner. In the match played at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamshala on Sunday night, Punjab defeated Lucknow Super Giants by 37 runs, securing a crucial win. Batting first, the team set a massive score of 236 runs for the loss of 5 wickets in 20 overs.
The team’s opener Prabhsimran Singh once again played a phenomenal innings, scoring 91 runs off 48 balls. During his innings, he hit 6 fours and 7 sixes, batting at a strike rate of 189.58. Following him, captain Shreyas Iyer (45 runs off 25 balls), Shashank Singh (not out 33 runs off 15 balls), and Marcus Stoinis (not out 15 runs off 5 balls) quickly added runs to take the team to a big score.
In Lucknow’s innings, Arshdeep Singh’s bowling was exceptional. He took 3 wickets for just 16 runs in his four-over spell, breaking Lucknow’s top order. Although Ayush Badoni played a spirited innings of 74 runs, he couldn’t steer the team to victory.
In the post-match press conference, Punjab’s head coach Ricky Ponting praised Prabhsimran, saying, He has been playing brilliantly throughout the tournament. I challenged both openers (Priyanshu and Prabhsimran) today to score a century. Unfortunately, Prabhsimran just missed it by a few runs, but his intention was clear. He wants to make this team successful, and we saw a glimpse of that today.
The coach explained that sending Josh Inglis to number 3 was the thinking of captain Shreyas Iyer. He said, We thought that Mayank Yadav would bowl at the start for Lucknow and he usually bowls short balls. In such a case, sending Inglis up makes sense because the pull shot is his strength, as he demonstrated today.
Ponting also praised Arshdeep’s bowling, stating, Arshdeep is getting better with every match. He has started taking wickets with the new ball in the powerplay, which we were confident he could do. His first over today set the tone for the match. He is a star bowler and an extremely important player for us.
While praising the atmosphere and crowd in Dharamsala, Ponting said, The atmosphere today was fantastic. This stadium is extremely beautiful, and we want to win all our home matches. Our next match is against Delhi at this ground, and we hope to receive excellent support there as well, and the players will replicate the same performance.
Punjab Kings will face Delhi Capitals in Dharamsala on May 8. The team’s goal is to secure consecutive wins at home and apply pressure on the opposing teams.
Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
