IPL 2025: Punjab Kings romp home to easy eight-wicket win over Lucknow Super Giants

Punjab Kings (PBKS) coasted to an easy eight-wicket win over Lucknow Super Giants in the 13th game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season. This was the second successive win for Shreyas Iyer’s team after beating Gujarat Titans in their opening game of the season. The margin of win was eight wickets with 22 balls to spare as the skipper hit the winning runs for six off Abdul Samad. 

Lucknow Super Giants will have to head back to the drawing board, having lost their second game of the season. It hasn’t been a great start to the campaign for Rishabh Pant, who has failed to deliver with the bat for his side. Pant was out after scoring just two runs to leave his side struggling at 35 for three at one stage. 

Nicholas Pooran yet again stole the show with the bat as he top scored with 44, while Ayush Badoni scored 41. The best bowler for PBKS was Arshdeep Singh, who picked 3 for 43 from his four overs. With the exception of Marcus Stoinis, each and every PBKS bowler managed to pick a wicket for the team. 

Shreyas Iyer and Prabhsimran Singh help PBKS to an easy win 

Lucknow began well with the ball to dismiss Priyansh Arya for eight in the third over of the game. Prabhsimran Singh and Shreyas Iyer deflated the hosts with their aggressive batting to add 84 runs for the second wicket in just 44 balls. Singh batted well as he scored his fifty off just 23 balls, which was the fastest at the Ekana Stadium. 

Just when it seemed that the 24-year-old was looking good for his second IPL ton, Ayush Badoni and Ravi Bishnoi combined well to end his knock. Singh was out for 69 off just 34 balls with the help of nine boundaries and three sixes. Nehal Wadhera, playing his first game of the season, was not out on 43 off just 25 balls with three boundaries and four sixes. Shreyas Iyer, who hit the winning runs, was not out on 52 off 30 balls to take his season’s tally to 149 runs. 

Losing skipper Rishabh Pant, speaking to the broadcasters, was heard saying, “Still assessing the conditions at our home ground. It's always going to be difficult to get a big total when you lose early wickets, but each and every player is trying hard to take the game forward. The idea was to get a slow wicket. I think the slower balls were sticking in. We've got to learn from this game and move forward”