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<\/p>\n
In reply, Lucknow managed just 200-5 as Punjab consolidated their top spot in the 10-team table with five wins and one no result in six matches.<\/p>\n
An early reprieve for Connolly proved costly for Lucknow after skipper Rishabh Pant decided not to review an lbw call in the second over from Mohsin Khan and replays suggested the ball would have hit the stumps.<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s Connolly was on four at the time and put on 182 runs for the second wicket with Arya as the two bludgeoned the opposition attack with 16 sixes between them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was exceptional, some of the shots were jaw dropping,\u201d said Punjab skipper Shreyas Iyer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just talking to Cooper and Priyansh, we were challenging as to who will hit the most sixes for the season, they are up for it.\u201d <\/p>\n
READ MORE<\/p>\n
A 200km Uber ride exposed cricket\u2019s new \u2018farce\u2019… and Poms are raging at the \u2018complete nonsense\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n IPL\u2019s $4m Aussie explodes to overcome form slump as Indian star goes ballistic<\/a><\/p>\n Triple treat for cricket fans: Full details of how to watch Aussies and rivals touring Bangladesh<\/a><\/p>\n Punjab Kings’ Australian cricket player Cooper Connolly celebrates after scoring his half-century.Source: AFP<\/p>\n Arya reached his second fifty of the season in 19 balls and soon the Lucknow attack had no answers for the batting blitz.<\/p>\n Connolly went after Aiden Markram with three straight sixes and Arya finished the over with two more in a 32-run 13th over and Punjab looked at 300.<\/p>\n But pace bowler Prince Yadav took down Connolly and Arya fell three balls later in the next over to miss out on a century.<\/p>\n Mohsin dismissed Iyer for five but Australia\u2019s Marcus Stoinis steered the team to a mammoth total with his 16-ball 29.<\/p>\n Mitchell Marsh, who hit 40, and Ayush Badoni (35) handed Lucknow a brisk start and Pant hit 43 but regular wickets and the ever-increasing run rate kept the team behind the chase.<\/p>\n Markram hit a valiant 22-ball 42 and despite a few dropped catches from Punjab fielders Lucknow lost their third straight match.<\/p>\n Punjab Kings’ Australian cricket player Cooper Connolly plays a shot during the IPL match against Lucknow Super Giants.Source: AFP<\/p>\n Cam Green smashed 79 in T20 IPL | 00:53<\/p>\n \u201cDefinitely, we believe in this team for sure,\u201d said Pant. \u201cBut at the same time when the opposition is playing well, like Punjab is playing now, you\u2019ve got to give credit to them for playing good hard cricket also.\u201d In the first match of the day, Rinku Singh hit an unbeaten 53 to lead Kolkata Knight Riders to their first win of the IPL season as they beat Rajasthan Royals by four wickets.<\/p>\n Rajasthan posted 155-9 as their batting faltered after 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi top-scored with 46 at Kolkata\u2019s Eden Gardens.<\/p>\n Three-time champions Kolkata slipped to 5-2 and 85-6 before the left-handed Rinku steered the team home with two balls to spare. <\/p>\n RINKU BLITZ LEADS KOLKATA TO FIRST WIN OF IPL SEASON <\/p>\n Rinku Singh hit an unbeaten 53 to lead Kolkata Knight Riders to their first win of the IPL season as they beat Rajasthan Royals by four wickets in a low-scoring contest on Sunday. <\/p>\n Rajasthan posted 155-9 as their batting faltered after 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi top-scored with 46 at Kolkata\u2019s Eden Gardens. <\/p>\n Kolkata, who had five defeats and one point from a rained-off game coming into the match, slipped to 5-2 and 85-6 before the left-handed Rinku steered the team home with two balls to spare. <\/p>\n Rinku smacked five fours and two sixes in his 34-ball knock and put on an unbeaten 76-run stand with number eight Anukul Roy, who made 29, to steer the team home. <\/p>\n The left-handed Roy kept calm with his senior partner as he hit a six off Jofra Archer in the 19th over and Kolkata needed nine from the final six balls. <\/p>\n Rinku, who was dropped on eight by Nandre Burger, hit two fours and a winning six as he raised his fifty to bring cheer to the dugout and home crowd. <\/p>\n England pace bowler Archer had Tim Seifert bowled for a duck on the first ball of the chase and South Africa\u2019s Burger dismissed skipper Ajinkya Rahane for nought to make it two down. <\/p>\n Kolkata\u2019s big-buy Cameron Green looked fluent in his 27 off 13 balls but fell stumped off Ravi Bishnoi with wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel pulling off an incredible move that saw him make a wide collection and a back flick onto the stumps. <\/p>\n Wickets kept tumbling with Ravindra Jadeja claiming two but Rinku made the most of his early reprieve to get three-time champions Kolkata over the line. <\/p>\n Earlier, Rajasthan started strongly with openers Yashasvi Jaiswal, who made 39, and T20 sensation Sooryavanshi, who bounced back from a golden duck in the previous game to hammer six fours and two sixes in his 28-ball knock, putting on 81 for the first wicket. <\/p>\n Spinner Varun Chakravarthy took down the left-handed Sooryavanshi and returned figures of 3-14 to trigger a collapse.<\/p>\n Fast bowler Kartik Tyagi took three key wickets and Sunil Narine claimed 2-26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Explosive knocks from opener Priyansh Arya and Cooper Connolly helped top of the table Punjab Kings hammer Lucknow…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[2620,64,63,689,284078,299725,299723,18762,26808,740,43813,1950,299722,284807,13849,289335,31774,18748,14477,192336,677,226627,57607,44087,56277,72147,10535,299724,31779,85,296179,23037,44867,253421,291247],"class_list":{"0":"post-618141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-agence-france-presse","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","12":"tag-australian-cricket-player","13":"tag-ballistictriple-treat","14":"tag-batting-blitz","15":"tag-cameron-green","16":"tag-cooper-connolly","17":"tag-cricket","18":"tag-cricket-fans","19":"tag-cricket-news","20":"tag-ever-increasing-run-rate","21":"tag-explosive-knocks","22":"tag-indian-premier-league","23":"tag-indian-star","24":"tag-kolkata-knight-riders","25":"tag-marcus-stoinis","26":"tag-mitchell-marsh","27":"tag-mohsin-khan","28":"tag-oceania","29":"tag-opposition-attack","30":"tag-pace-bowler","31":"tag-rajasthan-royals","32":"tag-riders","33":"tag-rinku-singh","34":"tag-rishabh-pant","35":"tag-rivals-touring","36":"tag-shreyas-iyer","37":"tag-sports","38":"tag-team-home","39":"tag-tim-david","40":"tag-travis-head","41":"tag-unbeaten-record","42":"tag-yadav"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}