Gujarat Titans beat Lucknow Super Giants by 5 wickets. ( Photos by Saikat Das / Sportzpics for IPL)Krunal 1 – Hardik 0 in kung fu Pandya
Krunal Pandya veiled his joy with his palms after he ejected his brother Hardik. As soon as Manish Pandey completed the skier, and a crushed Hardik swiped his bat in the air in rage, Krunal turned away from his brother and covered his face in his arms. It was only after his brother trudged past him that he unveiled and flashed half a smile, reluctantly, almost like a formality. The feeling might have been strange—may have rekindled memories of backyard cricket when they were kids. Since then, they have almost always been inseparable, on the domestic circuit as well as in the IPL, where until last year, both had worn the Mumbai Indians jersey. Hardik, though, was in a fit of rage, not so much perhaps for giving his wicket to his brother as getting out at a crucial juncture of the match. Before the game, they had wished each other success. “He said he will win, I said I will win, and then we decided to let the best man win,” Krunal said before the toss. In the first bout between the brothers, Krunal, the elder one, bested his younger sibling. But there’s more to come.
WATCH – Battle of brothers: @krunalpandya24 goes one up on Hardik.
Full video 📽️📽️https://t.co/EWbIHmwR3p #TATAIPL #GTvLSG pic.twitter.com/xE2omUC2V2
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 28, 2022
To Gill a Dropping Bird – a la Kapil
It’s the season of the 1983 movie, and Shubman Gill did a Kapil, running back to take a tremendous catch. He has taken catches diving forward inside the circle, taken near the boundary too, but the running backwards hasn’t been his great speciality. In the 2020-21 series, when his present IPL team-mate Matthew Wade had holed out behind midwicket, Gill nearly made a mess, running unsurely back but was saved the blushes by Ravindra Jadeja who burst past him to take a pearler. No such doubts tonight, though. As soon as Evan Lewis top-edged a pull, off he turned from midwicket and dashed back. And kept running. Eventually, he got to the ball and it still seemed it might dip a bit forward, he lunged to pouch it and landed with the ball safely in the palms. Kapil diehards might deduct a point for that finish as his 1983 version was not only under more pressure but he had sprinted so swiftly, so rhythmically that he had got under the ball safely without a need for the final lunge. But another school of thought these days, promoted heavily by Faf du Plessis, is that the fall helps break the movement nicely so that the ball doesn’t snap out of the palms. That’s why du Plessis falls down to the ground even for what seems regulation skiers. Gill perhaps felt he needed that lunge not only for the post-pouch ‘give’ but even to wrap his palms completely around the ball.
CATCH THAT, Shubman 👏👏
ICYMI – An outstanding leaping catch from @ShubmanGill that ended Evin Lewis’s stay out there in the middle.
Full video 📽️📽️https://t.co/le0ebbkUdw #TATAIPL #GTvLSG pic.twitter.com/90Sq0Qkdrt
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 28, 2022
Shout, doubts, joy
The appeal—off the first ball of the Lucknow Supergiants innings—was loud and eager. Both Mohammed Shami, the bowler, and Matthew Wade, the ‘keeper, seemed certain that KL Rahul had feathered an out-swinging pearler from Shami. The umpire dissented though. But when the captain Hardik Pandya asked them whether he should review, Shami and Wade suddenly seemed to backtrack. Shami seemed to suggest that he was unsure; Wade gestured that the sound could have been the bat hitting the flap of the pad. Understandably so, first ball of the innings, they feared burning a review. Finally, after much deliberation, just before the timer stopped, Pandya sought a referral, more wishfully than enthusiastically. His colleagues seemed sombre, as if they had erred. But, as it turned out, Rahul had indeed edged, and so clearly that, the third umpire took just one frame and the snicko to overturn the decision. Needless to say, Shami and Wade burst out in joy; and Pandya heaved a sigh of relief.
KL Rahul c †Wade b Mohammed Shami 0 (1b 0x4 0x6) SR: 0. 🎯 🎳 pic.twitter.com/3chrHqkgiD
— Live Cricket Master Updater (@MohsinM55415496) March 28, 2022
More of Hardik first impressions
Hardik Pandya might not have any prior captaincy experience to speak of, but if morning shows the day, he would be as streetwise as any of the skippers in the IPL business. The IPL has thrown up a few street-smart captains. Rishabh Pant, helming Delhi Capitals, is certainly one of them, among the newbies. Pandya, too, falls into that category.
At the toss, he spoke in a matter-of-fact tone. “It’s the first game, we want to see how the wicket plays,” Pandya told the host broadcaster after winning the toss. He encouraged his team-mates to embrace a devil-may-care attitude. “One thing which is very clear is we are going to give all the guys full freedom, play freely and enjoy.”
Gujarat Titans have won the toss and they will bowl first against #LSG.
Live – https://t.co/u8Y0KpnOQi #GTvLSG #TATAIPL pic.twitter.com/HZyySJiPSm
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 28, 2022
Then, it all happened in the first ball – Mohammed Shami bowling a beauty, KL Rahul nicking it behind the stumps, Matthew Wade starting a war dance, but the on-field umpire negating the appeal. Pandya trusted his ‘keeper and called for a review – as cool as a cucumber but his ‘T’ swagger sort of imitating Feroz Khan of Janbaaz vintage.
Tick tock tick tock tick tock SIX!!
Ayush Badoni’s wait for his first boundary in his first-ever IPL match was long and tedious. The 22-year-old, overstrung and overawed, sought a variety of jailbreak shots. A ramp off Lockie Ferguson, he was beaten black and blue for pace and he ended up swishing the humid air. A wild sweep off Rashid Khan, which he gloved to his pads. A heave off Hardik Pandya. Each time he missed or mistimed a shot, his senior partner Deepak Hooda would walk up and tell him to just rotate his strike. He would shake his head and nudge singles in the next two balls, before he would attempt an ambitious, boundary-seeking shot again. And he finally broke the shackles, off the 23rd ball he faced, when he slogged—a good old-fashioned one at that—Hardik Pandya over the midwicket fence. Much in the Pandya fashion, sans the extravagant flourish or flamboyance.And he let out a relieved smile, got a hug from Hooda and embarked on a boundary spree. He caned successive fours off Pandya, following the six, before he slog-swept Rashid Khan for his second six . The wait was finally worth it, as he made an impression on his IPL debut.
14.1
6
Hardik to Badoni, SIX 6⃣ runs pic.twitter.com/NurKUOjBNP— Live Cricket Master Updater (@MohsinM55415496) March 28, 2022
LucKLess Rahul
A change of team has not necessarily changed the fortunes of KL Rahul. Few teams have lost as many close-finishes as Punjab Kings—two defeats in the super-over last edition alone—in his reign. He began his Lucknow Super Giants reign on a similarly frustrating note, losing a match his team seemed to win before the Rahul Tewatia-David Miller duet. Rahul could not hide his dismay. He looked crestfallen and downcast as he plodded back to the dug-out. During the last few overs, when a defeat seemed inevitable, he cut an agitated figure, yelling at the erring bowlers and gesturing frantically at the sloppy fielders, and often cursing his wretched luck. When the game was finally over, he stood at the edge of the circle, near mid-off, where he was fielding and kept stroking his chin like a man who has lost all his hopes.
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