‘Ab Gautam bhaiya kise chup karange’ – Fans react as Punjab Kings wins a cliffhanger against Lucknow Super Giants in IPL 2023

In the 21st game of the ongoing IPL 2023, Lucknow Super Giants locked horns with Punjab Kings at the Ekana Stadium. Ahead of the game, the 2014 finalists, were coming back-to-back losses after starting the season with as many wins. On the other hand, the home team, Super Giants were coming off two back-to-back wins. Meanwhile, in the game, the Kings won the toss and elected to bowl first.

The home team had a great start as they scored 52/0 at the end of the powerplay. Right after the field restrictions were over, the Blue Brigade lost the wicket of Kyle Mayers (29) to Harpreet Brar. Deepak Hooda followed in the ninth over as he was trapped lbw by Sikandar Raza. This led to a massive drop in the scoring rate as skipper KL Rahul and Krunal Pandya put together a partnership of 48 in 35 balls.

Before this partnership was broken, the team had scored 110/2 in 14.1 overs. Rahul (79) hit a half-century that helped the team reach 159/8. For the Red Army, stand-in skipper Sam Curran took three wickets while Kagiso Rabad took two. One each was taken by Arshdeep Singh, Harpreet Brar, and Sikandar Raza.

Punjab Kings wins a cliffhanger against Lucknow Super Giants

In reply, the Mohali-based team had a poor start as Atharva Taide (0) was caught at deep third man in the first over. Prabhsimran Singh became the second victim of Yudhvir Singh in the third over. On the other hand, Matthew Short was impaling the Lucknow bowlers whenever they pitched it short or gave something to play on the up. The right-hander scored 34 off 22 balls before being caught at mid-off by Marcus Stoinis off K Gowtham.

After this wicket, Sikandar Raza came in and struggled for some time. However, in the 13th over bowled by Pandya, Raza bashed it for two sixes and a four to get going. Despite the other batters around him not applying themselves, the Zimbabwean ensured the team was in the game thanks to his fifty. Shahrukh Khan scored 23 off 10 unbeaten to take the team over the line with two wickets in hand.

This is how Twitter reacted