New Chandigarh, April 19 (IANS) In-form Punjab Kings extended their unbeaten streak in IPL 2026 with a clinical 54-run demolition of Lucknow Super Giants on Sunday. Defending a season-high total of 254/7, Marco Jansen finished with 2-37, while Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Vijaykumar Vyshak claimed one wicket apiece to ensure PBKS remained at the top of the points table.

While opener Priyansh Arya (93 off 37 balls) and Australian southpaw Cooper Connolly (87 off 46 balls) set up the massive target with their blazing fifties, PBKS bowlers delivered a disciplined performance to restrict LSG to 200/5, despite some late sloppiness in the field.

Chasing 255 was always going to be an uphill task for LSG and they went on this pursuit with their third opening combination – Mitchell Marsh joining forces with Ayush Badoni. The duo did well to have a 61-run stand, but it wasn’t enough to chase a steep target.

Though Marsh, Rishabh Pant and Aiden Markram hit 40s each, none could convert it to a huge game-defining knock to give PBKS a scare. With the heavy defeat, LSG got their third straight loss and are now at number eight, with only Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians behind them.

LSG’s experiment of opening Badoni with Marsh began well as they hit 10 boundaries in their opening stand going past fifty, before Vyshak broke the stand on the final ball of the powerplay by deceiving the former with a slower delivery that was comfortably caught by mid-wicket.

Marsh and Pant then tried to inject momentum – with the LSG skipper smoking Jansen for back-to-back sixes. But the introduction of Chahal tightened the screws – with 20 runs coming off overs 9-11, he broke the threatening second-wicket partnership when Marsh dragged a flighted delivery straight to long-on.

Pant continued his solo charge by smashing Chahal for consecutive sixes in the 12th over, but fell for a quick-fire 43 when his attempt to slice a wide yorker from Arshdeep led to him being caught behind, a decision confirmed by UltraEdge.

The chase effectively ended there as Nicholas Pooran’s poor run continued when he fell for nine – mistiming a knuckleball from Jansen to long-on. Markram (42) and Mukul Choudhary (21 not out) entertained with a flurry of boundaries and aided by three dropped catches from PBKS fielders in the final three overs, but the result was a foregone conclusion in the hosts favour.

Brief Scores: Punjab Kings 254/7 in 20 overs (Priyansh Arya 93, Cooper Connolly 87; Prince Yadav 2-25, M Siddharth 2-35) beat Lucknow Super Giants 200/5 in 20 overs (Rishabh Pant 43, Aiden Markram 42; Marco Jansen 2-37, Vijaykumar Vyshak 1-30) by 54 runs

–IANS

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