Sikandar Raza, Shahrukh Khan lead Punjab to two-wicket victory over Lucknow

Though Punjab Kings missed the services of regular skipper and opener Shikhar Dhawan due to a niggle Sikandar Raza stood up to hit his first IPL fifty while Shahrukh Khan applied finishing touches with a late cameo to take the side to a twowicket triumph over Lucknow Super Giants at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium on SaturdayAfter standin captain Sam Curran and fast bowler Kagiso Rabada picked 331 and 234 respectively to keep Lucknow Super Giants to 1598 Raza hit 57 off 41 balls to bring Punjabs chase on track followed by Shahrukh slamming 23 not out to ensure the sides third victory of the competitionFor Lucknow who have faced their first loss at home in the ongoing season questions will be raised over introducing Ravi Bishnoi late in the attack from the 15th over as well as of captain KL Rahul making 74 but not attacking much in the middle oversLucknow had a fiery start to their defence of 159 through debutant pacer Yudhvir Singh Charak He rushed Atharva Taide for pace and on the third ball he had the batter topedging a pull to the third manAlso Read IPL 2023 Poorans party timeOn the second ball of his next over Yudhvir sent Prabhsimran Singhs offstump on a cartwheel ride with a superb nipbacker Matthew Short was impressive in his 22ball 34 pulling driving and flicking with ease against Avesh Khan while taking backtoback fours on short balls from YudhvirHe then dispatched an overpitched ball from K Gowtham with a lofted drive over longon for six But the offspinner had the last laugh as on the last ball of Powerplay Short punched straight to a reversecupping midoffFrom there Lucknows bowlers kept things under control as Harpreet Bhatia heaved straight to deep backward square leg off Krunal Pandya in the 11th over despite surviving a directhit chance previouslyRaza injected momentum in the chase by lofting Gowtham down the ground for six followed by hoicking two sixes and a four off short balls from Krunal through the midwicket region in the 13th overThough Curran and Jitesh Sharma fell cheaply Raza marched forward to pull Mark Wood through the gap between a deep square leg and a fine leg to perfection for four and took a single through deep backward square leg to get his fifty in 34 ballsWith Shahrukh teeing off from the word go by smacking Wood over longon for six Raza crunched a drive off Avesh for four to bring the equation to 23 runs needed off 18 balls But Bishnoi dismissed Raza for 57 after the righthanded batter swept straight to deep backward square legAlso Read Familiar batting woes for LSG despite skipper KL Rahulrsquos 74 against PBKSShahrukh got a top edge on six off Wood while Harpreet Brar drove him through extra cover for four But the pacer bounced back by getting Brar to edge behind in the penultimate over After taking two runs each on the first two balls Shahrukh finished off the chase by hammering Bishnoi through longoff for four to seal the winBrief scoresLucknow Super Giants 1598 in 20 overs KL Rahul 74 Kyle Mayers 29 Sam Curran 331 Kagiso Rabada 234 lost to Punjab Kings 1618 in 193 overs Sikandar Raza 57 Matthew Short 34 Ravi Bishnoi 218 Yudhvir Singh Charak 219 by two wicketsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever