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BCCI has informally told the teams that the match could be held a day in advance. (PTI Photo) Synopsis: LSG’s spinners knock out SRH batsmen before scratchy Rahul and confident Pandya orchestrate chase
On a surface that was more in sync with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Lucknow Super Giants eviscerated Sunrisers Hyderabad. The surface, layered in black soil, was slow and low and abetted the trio of Lucknow’s spinners—Krunal Pandya. Amit Mishra and Ravi Bishnoi—whose combined figures read 12-0-67-6. Restricting the visitors to 121, they overhauled the target without much ado.
Spin treat
Right from the first delivery Kyle Mayers bowled, it was evident that slower bowlers held the keys on this surface. Krunal Pandya was introduced as early as the third over, and a wicket came off his fifth delivery of the night. Tossed up and slow, Mayank Agarwal looked to chip it over cover but played it too early and handed a catch to Marcus Stoinis in the ring. A soft dismissal rather.
It was not one of those pitches where you could just thrust your front-foot and drive; it was not one where you could hang back and work the ball through the leg-side. It was where you needed quick feet and hands, besides a quicker brain to score runs. A low stooping stance too could have benefitted.
Just when Rahul Tripathi and Anmolpreet Singh seemed to have cracked the code, Pandya struck twice off two balls. A flatter one that was angled trapped Anmolpreet in front, which on review turned out to be an umpire’s call lbw dismissal. The next ball, a bit more tossed up, spun away from a driving Aiden Markram to hit the off-stump.
Krunal Pandya on song here!
Picks up two key wickets in as many deliveries.
Anmolpreet Singh and Aiden Markram depart.
Live – https://t.co/7Mh0bHCrTi #TATAIPL #LSGvSRH #IPL2023 pic.twitter.com/33W5Uf4Gpv
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 7, 2023
After Pandya completed his second best figures (3/18) in this format, Ravi Bishnoi grabbed a moment of his own in the next over with a composed four-ball setup to remove Harry Brooks. Googly, googly, googly, and a leg-break. He was stumped. “It was difficult to play standstill on this wicket, I knew he’d step out,” Bishnoi would reveal the recipe post-innings.
In stepped the second most successful spinner in the league’s history, Amit Mishra. It’s 2023, he turned 40 last year, yet remains an influential figure. It seemed he has only become agiler as he pounced on a low catch inside the 30-yard circle to eject Rahul Tripathi. His 167th and 168th IPL dismissals came in the penultimate over as Hyderabad attempted to bow out big. Washington Sundar’s first aggressive shot of the innings off a tossed up delivery went straight to Deepak Hooda at long-on. A delivery later, Adil Rashid advanced down but was unable to clear the longer straight boundary.
Lucknow mentor Gautam Gambhir had suggested at the IPL auction that the Impact Player brought about the opportunity for the likes of Mishra to feature more in the league. On Friday, the team clearly knew the wicket they were playing on as they started off with the 40-year-old and subbed him for Ayush Badoni.
Brisk start
The target of 122 was never going to be daunting, and LSG openers KL Rahul and Kyle Mayers went about methodically, compiling 35 runs in 4.5 overs. Though the in-form Mayers perished to Fazalhaq Farooqi and Bhuvneshwar Kumar took out Deepak Hooda with a stunning left-handed return catch, the target was never going to intimidate LSG.
Nicholas Pooran finishes things off in style.@LucknowIPL chase down the target with 4 overs to spare as they beat #SRH by 5 wickets.
Scorecard – https://t.co/7Mh0bHCrTi #TATAIPL #LSGvSRH #IPL2023 pic.twitter.com/STXF5KLMuI
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 7, 2023
To Rahul’s support came Pandya, bubbling with the confidence of three wickets. With Rahul, he combined 55 relatively risk-free 55 runs. Pandya’s contribution was 34, off 23 balls, but by the time he departed the chase was almost sewn up, LSG requiring just 22 runs from 46 balls.
Scratchy Rahul
Coming into the IPL this season, KL Rahul was under the scanner more so than he has been in the previous editions. Following the T20 World Cup elimination last year, Rahul was among the senior players dropped from India’s shortest format team in the bilaterals that followed. A woeful run with the bat and a vice-captaincy snub midway through the Test series against Australia earlier this year further cast a shadow over his role in Indian cricket.
The conditions were tough but the @LucknowIPL Captain stood tall in the chase.@klrahul becomes our Top Performer from the second innings.
A look at his batting summary 👇#TATAIPL #LSGvSRH pic.twitter.com/NaZEl0R39K
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 7, 2023
A 12-ball-eight and an 18-ball-20 in the first two games of this IPL didn’t help his case. With just eight runs left to win and having spent a considerable time in the middle (35 off 31), the Lucknow captain was unable to cap off the game. And of all the strokes, a reverse sweep undid him. The ball from Adil Rashid landed around the middle stump, held the line and crawled underneath his swipe to trap him in front. A Romario Shepherd first ball duck followed but the late scare came a little too late for Hyderabad to capitalise upon as Nicholas Pooran and Marcus Stoinis wrapped up the game with five wickets and 24 deliveries in hand.
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