LSG vs PBKS, IPL 2025: Bowling star Arshdeep takes three crucial wickets, says ‘I could have bowled better’

IPL 2025: When Shreyas Iyer won the toss against Rishabh Pant’s Lucknow Super Giants on April 1, and chose to bowl first in Match 13 of IPL 2025, he said his decision was influenced by the possibility of dew and the fact that it was a new pitch, and the Punjab Kings wanted to see how it would behave. “The sooner we adapt, the better results we’ll get,” Shreyas said at the toss. It took Arshdeep Singh just four balls to adapt, as he returned figures of 3 for 43 to keep LSG to 171 for 7.

Each of Arshdeep’s strikes were significant, and Punjab Kings chased down the target with ease in just 16.2 overs. However, the left-arm seamer was still not quite satisfied with his showing, feeling he had gone for too many runs.

Arshdeep bookends LSG innings with wickets

The first three balls Arshdeep bowled were all back of a length, and, as expected from a bowler of his quality, he quickly sussed the conditions of the new red-soil deck at the Ekana Stadium. When he got the dangerous Mitchell Marsh on strike for the fourth ball, Arshdeep dug one on a shorter length again, while also getting it to seam away from the right-hander.

Crucially, it did not come through at normal pace off the surface and Marsh was way too early into the pull, to get a leading edge that was safely caught in the circle. Marsh has grown up playing on the fast and bouncy pitches in Perth, so getting him on the pull was a significant achievement in itself. He was also in prime form, coming on the back of innings of 72 (36) and 52 (31) into this game.

Arshdeep then closed out LSG’s innings with two wickets in the final over. Another short ball that came on slower than expected accounted for a fluent Ayush Badoni, while he cleverly made an explosive Abdul Samad reach for the ball to squirt an outside edge.

“I felt I could have bowled better”

In between those two overs, Arshdeep went for 33 runs in two overs. Although one was bowled in the powerplay and one at the death, the bowler still felt that was not good enough.

“I mean that’s pretty average on a wicket that was giving help to seam bowlers. I feel I could have bowled better and given less runs,” Arshdeep told the broadcasters at the innings break.

“In the powerplay it was stopping a bit, and extra bounce was there, so there was enough help. We could have hit the lengths for a bit more time and it would have been a different score.”

Arshdeep sets high standards for himself, which is why he was unhappy with the runs conceded. But a lot of the runs he conceded were by batsmen playing innovative shots. And both Badoni (41 off 33) as well as Samad (27 off 12) had been teeing off in style.

“Batters don’t trust their defence much”

There was also planning involved. Arshdeep started the innings with two slips, but also kept a deep cover. It was an unusual fielding position for the powerplay, but a well though-out one.

“As you know nowadays, batters don’t trust their defence much. They just want to go after the ball, so I had two slips and a deep cover so that just in case it swings and the ball goes up in the air, there is a fielder for me. And I’m attacking as well with two slips,” he explained.

The planning and understanding of T20 batters’ mindsets paid off in the first over, and Arshdeep’s smarts ensured a strong finish too. Together, his wickets made a significant dent in the total LSG were able to post, and ensured Punjab started IPL 2025 strongly, with two wins in two games.