PowerPlays told a story, and so did the captains

PowerPlays sometimes tell you things that scorecards don't.

One glance at the first six overs of this game and it screams how it unfolded. Punjab Kings were 61/1 after the PowerPlay, and Lucknow Super Giants 39/3. That alone was enough to foretell the result. Because statistically, it's brutal for teams that lose three or more wickets in the PowerPlay. Since the start of IPL 2023, such teams have gone on to lose over 72% of their matches.

But the contrast ran deeper when you read between the numbers. Both teams played the PowerPlay, and perhaps the rest of the match, like their captains would.

Shreyas Iyer walked out to bat during the third over, fresh off a selfless near-century in the previous game and remained unbeaten on 52 off 30 to take his team home. He hit 4 sixes, the joint most by any player in the match, and took his sixes-tally to 13 in just two games this season.

This knock from him wasn't like his 97* against Gujarat Titans. Here in Lucknow, he wasn't the showstopper. Instead, he let others take the spotlight. First, he played second fiddle to Prabhsimran Singh, who set the tempo early, and then he did the same to Nehal Wadhera. Iyer was truly happy to rotate strike, absorb pressure and quietly finish things off.

Pant, like Iyer, walked in during the PowerPlay but it was all chaos. Arshdeep had dismissed Mitchell Marsh with a delivery that gripped and cut away sharply, and Aiden Markram had chopped on a fast delivery from Lockie Ferguson. Then Pant fell to a long hop from Glenn Maxwell, the kind of delivery outside leg-stump that he usually hits for sixes. His scores this season now read: 0, 15 and 2 in this match against PBKS.

"Definitely [our total] wasn't enough, we were like 20-25 runs short but that's part and parcel of the game," Pant said after the game. "It's our first home game so still assessing the conditions."

Punjab's chase was smooth. The pitch had some stickiness, as Arshdeep noted at the innings break, but the shot that lingered came in the PowerPlay: a slower, wider delivery from Ravi Bishnoi that Prabhsimran slapped away for six. It was the last boundary of the PowerPlay but it stayed with you. Not just because of the swing of the bat or how Prabhsimran watched it fly or the fact that it brought the required rate below eight. But also because of where it went. Over cover. For a six.

Interestingly, LSG bowled three overs of spin in the PowerPlay. PBKS bowled just one, and that over from Glenn Maxwell brought a wicket. Just like it had against Shubman Gill in the previous match. Bishnoi, meanwhile, looked out of ideas. It was his third straight game being outbowled by 21-year-old Digvesh Rathi. Against Prabhsimran, he was slog-swept, pulled and finally cover-driven for a six.

Bishnoi didn't seem to know where to go. And at a home venue that's still hard to read, LSG looked just as unsure.

"Definitely it's always going to be tough to get a big total when you lose early wickets, but that's how the game progresses every day, you can't control everything," Pant said. "Each and every player is trying to take the game forward from there."

LSG's recovery, led by Ayush Badoni and Abdul Samad, couldn't offset the early damage. At a ground where the average first innings total since 2023 was just 165, and where pacers took a wicket every 17.9 balls, second chances are rare.

Sometimes, perhaps all it takes is one look at the first six overs. Or at the captains batting in them. On Tuesday night in Lucknow, one played like he was shaping the game and the other looked like he was still trying to catch up.