Delhi: Punjab Kings (PBKS) scored their biggest score ever in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season when he scored 236 runs against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in Dharamshala. The biggest contribution to this huge score was Prabhasimran Singh (91 runs), Shreyas Iyer (45 runs) and Shashank Singh (33 runs), but another batsman, whose small but aggressive innings gave the team a strong start, was Australian wicketkeeper batsman Josh English.
English was promoted at number three in this match. After the match, PBKS head coach Ricky Ponting revealed that the decision was taken by captain Shreyas Iyer.
Ponting said in the press conference, “This was actually the captain’s decision. Shreyas thought that if the wicket falls quickly against that kind of pitch and bowling attack, it would be right to send English. We felt that Mayank would bowl in the beginning, and he usually puts the small length balls, which is the strength of English, as you saw, his bridge shots were brilliant.”
English scored 30 runs in 14 balls, including 4 sixes. He came to the crease after Priyansh Arya (4 balls, 1 run) was dismissed in the second over of the innings and started scoring runs in an aggressive manner, when the Lucknow team was making a strategy against Prabhasimran, Priyansh and Shreyas, then English came out of the ‘syllabus’.
Ponting said, “This was the captain’s thoughtful step. This gave us a chance to take off the batsmen like Shreyas, Safera and Shashank in the middle overs, which was important for us in terms of match today (Sunday). It was also a shocking step for LSG, and we got benefit.”
He further said, “We had scored more than 70 runs in the powerplay, due to which the whole Momentum has come with us. We have batsmen like Azamatullah till number 9, so we bat very deeply. That is why our top order gets the freedom to play openly, and he took full advantage of it today.”
Related news
6