Punjab Kings 254 for 7 (Arya 93, Connolly 87, Prince 2-25, Siddharth 2-35) beat Lucknow Super Giants 200 for 5 (Pant 43, Markram 42*, Marsh 40, Jansen 2-37) by 54 runs

LSG, meanwhile, slumped to a third straight loss to slip to No. 8, with only Kolkata Knight Riders – who notched up their first win of the season earlier in the day – and Mumbai Indians – who play Gujarat Titans on Monday – behind them.

A dream start and two missed chances

Mohammed Shami’s bolt-upright seam and late movement had Prabhsimran Singh nicking to slip for a golden duck in the first over. In the second, Mohsin Khan should have had Connolly twice. First, LSG let go the possibility of an lbw review; replays confirmed three reds as Connolly was beaten attempting to flick an in-ducker. One ball later, Mohsin missed a simple return chance on his follow-through.

Arya gets stuck in

Three overs, 40 runs. Those were Mohsin’s powerplay figures in his comeback game. Much of the early damage was done by Arya, who hit him for four sixes – all to different points on the leg side, off short balls aimed into the body. This helped him race to 40 off 13 in the powerplay, and to his half-century in 19 balls.

The standout aspect of Arya’s game was his awareness. He was brutal in front of square with the pull, a mark of how quickly he was picking the length. At one point, just after the powerplay, LSG had four fielders patrolling the leg-side boundary, from long-on to deep backward square leg. Arya responded by walking across his stumps to paddle left-arm spinner M Siddharth past short fine leg.

Connolly joins the party

At 110 for 1 in 10 overs, Pant turned to Shami for a second spell and Connolly welcomed him with two sixes. He had begun slowly, scoring just 41 off his first 32 balls, but now he was in a punishing mood. When Shami went short, he pulled him ferociously in front of square. And when he went slower and fuller, Connolly teed off, straight over his head.

Connolly was audacious too, such as when he exposed all three stumps and got down low to scoop Avesh Khan over short fine leg. His blockbuster act of the night was to come soon after, when he hit Aiden Markram for three back-to-back sixes in his only over, which cost 32. By the end of the 13th over, PBKS had hit 16 sixes; nine by Arya and seven by Connolly.

A mini LSG comeback

PBKS walloped 21 sixes, the most in an innings yet this season.

LSG never threaten

After Rishabh Pant-Markram and Markram-Marsh, LSG opened with Ayush Badoni and Marsh, and they only scored 12 off the first two overs. It spoke of the magnitude of LSG’s task that even 49 off the next four overs, which gave them a powerplay score of 61 for 1 seemed inadequate.

Vyshak Vijaykumar provided the early breakthrough when he dismissed Badoni for 35. Pant hit two sixes off his first three balls, but was reined in expertly by Vyshak and Yuzvendra Chahal. Vyshak stuck to his strengths of bowling the wide yorker and slower deliveries that Pant couldn’t get away, and all that pressure led to Marsh holing out as Chahal struck for the first time in three games. Then Pant fell soon after, LSG slipping to 128 for 4 in the 13th.

The freefall continued with Nicholas Pooran next to go, extending his horror run to six games. Some big hits from Markram merely reduced the margin of defeat. A series of drops late in the innings from Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran were minor blips in yet another dominant PBKS win, which set their campaign up with a great chance of finishing in the top two.