LSG suffered a 37-run defeat against PBKS, which put them into a do-or-die situation to qualify for the playoffs now. They have to win all their remaining matches from here to be in the playoff race. Let’s look at the key reasons for LSG‘s defeat against PBKS
Catches win Matches
This proverb will never get old until cricket dies. Nicholas Pooran dropped a sitter of Prabhsimran Singh in the last over of the powerplay when the score was 58/2 in 5.2 overs. Prabhsimran was batting at 21 of 11 at that point. He later played a match-winning knock of 91 runs off 48 balls.
On the other hand, Nehal Wadhera took a brilliant catch in the 3rd over to dismiss Mitchell Marsh for a duck. Shashank Singh took two brilliant catches to dismiss Rishabh Pant and David Miller in the 8th and 10th over, bowled by Azmatullah Omarzai.
Catching was the main difference between these two sides.
Early wickets
Arshdeep Singh dismissed both Aiden Markram and Mitchell Marsh in the 3rd over of the powerplay. The opening pair is the backbone of LSG’s batting order. He broke that within the power play. He dismissed Nicholos Pooran in the 5th over and pushed LSG in the backfoot.
LSG lost 3 wickets in the powerplay and scored just 38 runs. Such a poor start won’t help that much while chasing a massive total of 237.
Poor form of the middle order
LSG’s batting is too dependent on their top-3 batters Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran & Mitchell Marsh. Senior players in the middle order, like Rishabh Pant and David Miller, are yet to fire in this tournament. They should step up in such situations when the top order fails to contribute. Both of them have disappointed this season.
Rishabh Pant was seen in all sorts of trouble as a knock of 18 runs in 17 balls isn’t that productive. David Miller on the other side scored 11 runs in 8 balls. Pant has had a forgettable tournament with bat as he has amassed 128 runs in 10 innings and Miller 153 runs in 11 innings
They both lost their wickets cheaply yesterday and put their team into 73/5 in 10 overs. Ayush Badoni and Abdul Samad made a brilliant partnership of 81 runs from there, but it was never enough to reach the target after such a massive collapse in the first 10 overs.
Abdul Samad got out for 45 runs off 24 balls in the 17th over. Ayush Badoni got out for 74 runs off 40 balls in the first ball of the last over. Their knocks helped LSG to reduce the defeat margin and save their net run rate.
Also Read: PBKS vs LSG: Prabhsimran Singh’s 91 Powers PBKS To 37-Run Victory Over LSG