Raza, Shahrukh star in Punjab's narrow win over Lucknow

KL Rahul finally shook off his poor form with an innings that would have held the interest beyond IPL. Lucknow Super Giants rode on his 32nd half-century in the league (74 – 56b, 8x4, 1x6) -- he also completed 4,000 runs – but Rahul couldn't save his side from their first defeat on home turf this season.

Rahul, who scored 8, 20, 35 and 18 in the previous four matches, came to his own as he helped LSG score 159/8. But Punjab Kings still pulled off an exciting two-wicket victory with three balls to spare, reaching 161/8. They achieved this at the packed Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium without skipper Shikhar Dhawan – shoulder injury – and under Sam Curran.

It is the third win for PBKS. Needing seven runs in the last over, Shahrukh Khan and Kagiso Rabada got them with three balls to spare. Zimbabwe's Sikandar Raza set it up with his maiden half-century (57, 41 b, 4x4, 3x6) in his first IPL season. The team was reeling at 45/3 when Raza came to bat his quick-fire innings rallied the side. He was out in the 18th over, Marcus Stoinis taking a simple catch off leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi, but PBKS got through in the end.

Debutant pacer Yudhvir Singh dismissed openers Atharva Taide (0) and Prabhsimran Singh (4) in quick succession. Matthew Short (34 -- 22b, 5x4, 1x6) tried to accelerate until he fell to off-spinner Krishnappa Gowtham. Harmanpreet Singh (22, 22b, 3x4) was then removed by Krunal Pandya.

Rahul and Kyle Mayers, picked to open as an Impact Player, added 49 runs in 36 balls and set the pace for a big score on the red soil pitch, which had bounce and pace. Mayers (29, 23b, 1x4, 3x6) was dealing in sixes only in the early overs before being caught by Harmanpreet Singh off Harpreet Brar.

Though wickets kept falling, Rahul struck three glorious boundaries off Arshdeep Singh. A 48-run third-wicket partnership with Krunal Pandya (18, 17b, 2x4) helped LSG score 100 runs in 77 balls.

The last 14 balls of the LSG innings saw the dismissal of Rahul, caught off Arshdeep, Gowtham (1) caught by Sikandar Raza off Curran and Yudhvir Singh (0) caught by Shahrukh off Curran.

A disappointed Rahul said: "I think we were about 10 runs short towards the end. The dew came in and it seemed to help the batters a little bit more. We did not execute well with the ball. When you are playing on a new ground and a new pitch, you cannot rely on the previous games," he said after the match.

"We take it as it comes, assess it on the go and don't really set ourselves a target. If a couple of batters get in, play good knocks, we can get to 180-190. Unfortunately, today, few of the batters hit good shots but got caught just on the boundary line. On another day, we would have got those 10-15 runs extra that would have made the difference," he said, adding, "We have 7-8 batters in our team, and few can clear any boundary. Some are not as powerful but have skill. It is about each player playing their part and role and that is what makes a team exciting, and that is what we need to do."