Punjab Kings lost Match 42 of IPL 2022 to Lucknow Super Giants by 20 runs on Friday (April 27).
The Mayank Agarwal-led side won the toss and opted to bowl first. They had broken the backbone of Lucknow's batting by dismissing skipper KL Rahul cheaply.
But with the contributions from Quinton de Kock (46 off 37 balls) and Deepak Hooda (34 off 28 balls), LSG managed to post 153/8 in 20 overs.
— Punjab Kings (@PunjabKingsIPL) April 29, 2022
Punjab Kings never got going in the chase. Despite the good start by Shikhar Dhawan and Mayank, no PBKS batter could stay there for a long time and eventually lost the game by a margin of 20 runs.
So are PBKS' chances done and dusted in IPL 2022 after the loss to LSG?
The answer is no. Punjab Kings have won 4 out of their 9 games and still have 5 games left in the season. In order to qualify for playoffs, a team needs to win at least 8 number of matches. That means Punjab need to win 4 games out of their remaining five to ensure they are in hunt for a top-4 finish. However, to avoid any NRR issue, they must try and win all the remaining five.
It must be told to our readers that the format of the league may have changed in IPL 2022, the teams may have increased to 10 but they still get to play 14 matches each. Each team play twice with the teams in their group as well with the ones in the same row in the next group.
