The 38th match of the ongoing 16th season of the Indian Premier League will take place between Punjab Kings and Lucknow Super Giants tomorrow, at the Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali.
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PBKS have arrived in Mohali after winning a close encounter against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium, after both their batters and bowlers outperformed the opposition during the death Overs. While skipper Sam Curran led the way with the bat, it was the Indian international Arshdeep Singh, whose two brilliant Overs in the death clinched the side their fourth victory of the season.
LSG, on the other hand, would like to quickly flush out the memories of their previous encounter against the Gujarat Titans. Despite their skipper KL Rahul playing out half the number of Overs in the innings, they couldn’t end on the right side of the result with mere 31 runs needed off six Overs, and nine wickets still in the bank.
Rahul himself would have to come up with some pep talk or two in his head to get over with the disappointing result, in what was otherwise a near perfect match for his batters and bowlers.
IS Bindra Stadium Mohali Pitch Report for PBKS vs LSG
The matches at the IS Bindra Stadium have not really produced huge team total in this season so far. The tracks have gripped, making it a tad challenging for the batters to play their shots through the line.
The average score across the three IPL 2023 matches so far at this venue has been 169.4 runs, with PBKS registering the highest total of 191 during their very first home match versus KKR.
“The pitch was very rough underneath, there was not enough water there I guess. There was hardly any sixes hit off the back foot against the spinners. The strategy was to bat deep to have a crack at 190. Told them (the bowlers) that the target was more than enough,” remarked Virat Kohli post the previous match at this venue versus Punjab.
Spinners are likely to play a huge role during tomorrow’s match as well, with them expected to extract decent turn off the surface.
“I tried to bowl my strength (wicket-to-wicket). I saw the wicket was gripping, so I tried to bowl wicket taking options (googly),” remarked RCB leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga on the help he got from the Mohali pitch during his side’s previous match here.
