Lucknow Super Giants defeat Mumbai Indians by 4 wickets who despite putting a total of 153 runs took the game upto the very last over after Stoinis’ heroics with both the bat and ball.
No happy returns on Ro’s birthday
Rohit Sharma who had scored 1(5) in 2014, 2(5) in 2022, 3(5) in 2023 on his birthday continued the same pattern only managing 4 runs off his 5 balls. The powerplay wasn’t any better for the MI batters as well only managing to score 28 runs by losing 4 wickets making it the second lowest powerplay score this IPL season. Captain Hardik Pandya couldn’t relieve any pressure as he was gone for a golden duck putting Afghan pacer Naveen Ul-Haq on-a-hattrick.
Nehal and Ishan hold the wickets flow
MI who were 28-4 by the end of the powerplay looked very poor and in a haste until Ishan Kishan and Nehal Wadhera played a rather slow knock to keep the wickets intact. Their 53 runs partnership which came off 58 balls helped to put MI at a total of 80-5 from a point where MI were expected to get bowled out.
Ishan, who couldn’t resist the temptation of Ravi Bishnoi was caught by Mayank Yadav for the score of 32 runs off 36 balls. Nehal, whereas managed to put up 46 runs to his name off the 41 balls e faced making him the highest run getter for Mumbai Indinas in their innings.
Tim ‘Hulk’ David hits a quick 35!
Tim David who’s arguably MI’s death over finisher who MI had all their hopes pinned on at this point came out to bat at the 14th over in his favourable phase was put on a little pressure as the team was 80-5 and he couldn’t take any risks.
Despite 2 quick wickets falling at the other end, Tim David remained unohase as he hit 35* runs off his 18 balls including a maximum and 3 fours alongside his name to put MI on a respectable score of 144-7 by the end of the 20 overs where they looked to be bowled out within the first 10 overs by some fantastic bowling by the Lucknow bowlers.
Contrast of powerplay for the Super Giants
LSG who were 1-1 by the end of the first over with Arshin Kulkarni who was brought as an impact sub having gone for a duck. In spite of the first over, skipper KL Rahul formed a 58 runs partnership with Marcus Stoinis inside the powerplay to put 59 runs on the scoreboard for the loss of only 1 wicket within the first 6 overs.
Stoinis contributes heavily as Lucknow get over the line
KL Rahul who looked on-song in the first six overs had to walk back as he was caught by Mohammad Nabi to end his innings of 28 runs off 22 balls in a captain vs captain battle in the middle.
Marcus Stoinis scored 62 quick runs off 45 deliveries with 2 maximums and 7 fours to his name as he took away the momentum from Mumbai bowlers who had any glimmer of hope as he smashed bowlers for boundaries all around the park. His quick innings was put to end by experienced Nabi as he was caught by Tilak Varma to put his name in the wickets column for Nabi.
Ayush Badoni who looked to finish the game for Lucknow was run out in a controversial decision at the striker’s end as the shoulder of his bat looked to have touched the ground but the the third umpire opted otherwise.
Despite Badoni not being able to finish the game, his partner, Pooran at the non-strikers end finished a long-stretched game for a below par score in the 20th over.
Written by Arohan S. Phuyal / KhelChautari