Punjab Kings (PBKS) head coach Ricky Ponting revealed that it was not his idea to send Australia wicketkeeper-batter Josh Inglis at no.3 instead of captain Shreyas Iyer. Ponting said Iyer took the decision considering Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) pacer Mayank Yadav often bowls short and Inglis can counter it with his pull shots.
"It was actually a move that the captain came up with. He thought on that sort of pitch, against that bowling attack, that it would be the right thing to if a wicket fell early to send Inglis in. We felt that Mayank would bowl early on. If you look at the way he bowls, he generally bowls reasonably short. And that's one of Inglis' great strengths, as you saw tonight. Those pull shots were pretty amazing straight away," Ponting said at the post-match press conference.
The move paid of as Inglis walked in to bat in the second over after Priyansh Arya fell to debutant Akash Maharaj Singh. In Mayank's first over, Inglis hit three consecutive sixes. All three deliveries Mayank bowled were short-pitched or back of the length. In the fifth over, Inglis hit Akash for a singh before losing his wicket. He scored 30 runs from just 14 deliveries.
"It then also allows us to have Iyer, [Nehal] Wadhera and Shashank [Singh] through the middle of the innings, which is what we thought would be crucial for us in tonight's game as well," Ponting said.
"So, yeah, I mean, it was probably a surprise call for LSG to see him [Inglis] go out [at No. 3] and it paid off for us tonight. So once we got off to a [start], I think we were 70-odd at the end of the powerplay, all the momentum was going with us. You see with our batting, you know, we've got someone like Azmatullah [Omarza]i at No. 9. So we bat really, really deep and it allows our top order to play with a lot of freedom. And they did that tonight. And, you know, to bat first and get that sort of total was a great effort."
Big win for PBKS
Then, captain Iyer kept the tempo up during his partnership with opener Prabhsimran Singh. They shared a 78-run partnership for the third wicket. Iyer hit two sixes and four fours in his 25-ball 45. He was dismissed by spinner Digvesh Rathi in the 13th over. Meanwhile, Prabshimran went on to score 91 runs from just 48 balls. Then cameos from Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh and Marcus Stoinis helped PBKS post a daunting total of 236/5. PBKS won the match by 37 runs and climbed to the second spot on the points table.