After blowing hot and cold in the first-half of IPL 2022, Punjab have eight points in as many outings but finally seemed to have unlocked greater team balance with their second win of the season over four-time champions Chennai Super Kings. Likewise, Lucknow Super Giants are fresh off doing a double over a struggling Mumbai Indians - both wins set up by their skipper KL Rahul's centuries in either meeting. How exceptionally well Rahul shoulders the batting responsibility almost single-handedly isn't lost on the Kings. After all, he has been the most successful run-getter for Punjab to date in IPL with an aggregate of 2548 and four successive 500+ seasons leading up to his switch to LSG.
PBKS & LSG look to make gains towards playoff plans
The protagonists of IPL's most successful partnership in the last two editions combined, KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal will face off for the first time this season with both their sides seeking consistency as the race to play-offs intensifies. Among the captains this year, the two have also been broadly at the opposite ends of the run chats, but both will agree the only standings that matter in the business end of the tournament is on the points table.
But fortunately for PBKS, the batters have put their hand up at crucial junctures even if for the apparent lack of consistency. Most recently, on a sticky and used Wankhede wicket, it was Shikhar Dhawan's well-paced 88 that admittedly gave the team a score more than what they'd anticipated. Equally vital cameos came from the bats of Liam Livingstone, who has been the explosive pivot in the middle-order, and the returning Bhanuka Rajapaksa - a move that has added more firepower to Punjab's batting half.
In their 11-run win over CSK, Punjab showed a radical shift from the go-hard-or-go-home batting approach they adopted in the first half. Their conservative methods seemed to be backfiring - Punjab managed 37/0 from the powerplay and got to the 100 only in the 13th over with the hitters still in the dugout - but the timely acceleration eventually steered them to the safety of a defendable total and might form the blueprint of their success going forward. "We don't want to lose too many wickets in a bunch, that was a conscious effort [today], but at the same time not going in a shell and being aggressive," Dhawan said of their changed approach. "We keep that nice balance, play with the presence of mind and smartness, not just play with power-hitting but playing with the fields as well."
LSG currently have the safety net of one more win than PBKS, and their fourth-place standing, but there have been uncomfortable fluctuations in performance since a hat-trick of wins at the start. At the batting crease, Rahul may have been reminded of his Punjab days far too often for his liking. The batting mainstay for LSG, Rahul is second (368) only behind Jos Buttler's incredible tally of 499 runs but would demand more support from his batters. The side boasts of enviable depth on paper, with the likes of Marcus Stoinis, Krunal Pandya, Deepak Hooda and Jason Holder making up the all-rounders' roster. But how they fare in the death overs against an experienced Kagiso Rabada and a stingy Arshdeep Singh - the most economical (7.33) of all pacers in slog overs of IPL 2022 - can well decide the course of the game.
