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Punjab Kings (PBKS) will host the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in a crucial encounter of the IPL 2023 season on Friday. Both teams have played seven games each and have eight points on the board.
Punjab had a morale-boosting win away against the Mumbai Indians (MI), while Lucknow faltered in what should have been a straightforward chase against the Gujarat Titans in their respective last matches. PBKS also beat LSG in a last-over thriller when the two teams met earlier this season.
Some match-ups could certainly have a bearing on the result of the upcoming game. On that note, let's take a look at three such match-ups in tonight's game:
#3 Marcus Stoinis vs Sam Curran
Marcus Stoinis has been blowing hot and cold for LSG this season with the bat. However, they will be delighted that he has started to bowl too, and that confidence could reflect in his batting. Stoinis walked out to bat too late in the previous game and that would be one thing the Lucknow management would look to address.
While the Australian all-rounder would love the ball coming onto the bat in Mohali, he has a match-up against PBKS stand-in captain Sam Curran. Curran has already dismissed Stoinis twice in T20 cricket, including the instance when the two teams met earlier this season. This makes it an interesting match-up to look forward to.
#2 Liam Livingstone vs Ravi Bishnoi
Liam Livingstone is yet to hit the ground running for PBKS in the IPL 2023 season. Piyush Chawla exposed his weakness against wrist spin when he was dismissed against MI. Lucknow will look at this as an opportunity as they have Ravi Bishnoi in their ranks.
Interestingly, Livingstone has faced Bishnoi before, scoring 15 runs off the seven balls that he faced and is yet to be dismissed. This means that the hard-hitting Englishman won't hold back either if Bishnoi encourages him to go for a big shot.
This match-up in the middle overs could either set Punjab up for a big score or make a difference of at least 15-20 runs for LSG.
#1 KL Rahul vs Arshdeep Singh
A young Arshdeep Singh impressed under KL Rahul's captaincy a couple of years ago, but now the two will be up against each other in what is arguably the most important match-up of the game.
Rahul scored an impressive 74 against Punjab when the two teams met earlier in the reverse fixture, but Arshdeep has a great record against the LSG skipper. Rahul has scored just 17 runs in the 18 balls that he has faced from Arshdeep and has been dismissed once.
Arshdeep is also in fantastic bowling form, having returned sensational figures of 4/29 against MI in his previous game. It will be interesting to see if Rahul counter-attacks in the powerplay or plays the anchor role as Arshdeep would be keen to have an upper hand over the batter again.
