LSG batter Ayush Badoni plays a shot during the IPL 2023 cricket match between Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, in Lucknow, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. (PTI Photo/Atul Yadav) It felt more like a home game for Chennai Super Kings – and it was not just due to the abundance of yellow in the stands to welcome MS Dhoni to the City of Nawabs. The venue also laid out the red carpet in the form of a pitch that played right down the visitor’s alley. The tacky surface was a great ally to the CSK spin trio of Ravindra Jadeja, Moeen Ali and Maheesh Theekshana, after giving the returning Deepak Chahar some swing with the new ball.
It was only the weather that was the dampener with not even one innings allowed to be completed as the rain meant both teams had to be satisfied with a point each from the fixture. Small totals had been difficult to chase down in the last few games, and it would have been interesting to see how the CSK line-up would have countered the challenge, had the weather relented.
Playing into Dhoni’s hands
The conditions were exactly what Captain Cool relishes, and he rarely missed a trick – from bringing on spin as early as the fourth over, to getting Ajinkya Rahane at slip for Theekshana when the left-hander Krunal Pandya came out to bat.
Lucknow Super Giants were missing their regular skipper KL Rahul, out injured, and the rest of their batting line-up, especially their overseas players, didn’t show the ability to adjust to the challenge. Kyle Mayers, Nicholas Pooran and Marcus Stoinis are power-hitters and seems counter-intuitive for LSG to play their home games on a surface that neutralises their strengths.
The fate of the innings was more or less sealed when the Powerplay ended with the score at 31/3, with the hosts losing half their side for 44 before reaching the halfway mark in terms of overs.
And with slinger Matheesha Pathirana brought on in the second half of the innings as a specialist operator at the death, LSG hardly ever got any breathing space.
ICYMI!
Mr. Rajeev Shukla, Vice President of the BCCI felicitates @msdhoni with a special award at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow 👏🏻👏🏻#TATAIPL | #LSGvCSK | @ShuklaRajiv pic.twitter.com/ddYZ1P65Ef
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 3, 2023
Unsung but most valuable
Moeen Ali is not the first name that comes to mind when one thinks of CSK’s most valuable assets. But the England all-rounder finds ways to contribute in every match, whether with bat, ball or in the field. The Ekana Stadium pitch played to Moeen’s strengths, and he responded with figures of 2/13 from his four overs without conceding a single boundary, though one side of the pitch had a much smaller distance to the rope. All the runs he conceded came in singles.
The off-spinner started LSG’s slide when he induced Mayers into a mistimed hit to be caught well inside the long-off boundary, and then took a sharp return catch as Karan Sharma came down the track to smash one over the bowler’s head.
And when the 59-run stand between Pooran and the impressive Ayush Badoni looked set for a crack at the bowlers in the final few overs, Moeen took a good catch at the edge of the circle to get rid of the West Indian left-hander. He doesn’t do anything fancy – no doosras or carroms – but reads the batsman and the situation, staying ahead of the game.
The Englishman is often an unsung hero for whichever team he turns out for. He may not be very high up in the race for the Orange or Purple Caps, but makes vital interventions that often put the side in the ascendancy.
Youngster shows the way
On a pitch where his big-name teammates felt like fish out of water, young Ayush Badoni showed what is possible with a bit of application, initiative and a cool head. Coming in at 44/5, the 23-year-old from Delhi showed that teams should sometimes look beyond star players and give upcoming players with form and confidence a chance up the order. LSG were at 124/7 when rain brought a premature end to their innings, with Badoni getting an unbeaten 59 from 33 balls with two fours and four sixes, coming in at No. 7. Who knows what he would have been capable of had he got more overs to bat.
Watch till the end for a special surprise 😘💙pic.twitter.com/ukPDXt5ih9
— Lucknow Super Giants (@LucknowIPL) May 3, 2023
Badoni took his own time to get set – the team didn’t have any proper batsman after him – but once he was in, he almost toyed with the CSK bowling on a pitch where everyone else struggled. He even took 20 runs off the 19th over from Chahar, the highlight being a six over wide long-off after shuffling across the stumps when the bowler delivered a full ball outside off.
Badoni started the onslaught with a flat slog-sweep against Pathirana for six, and repeated the dose in the bowler’s next over. A cut past point brought a boundary, as did a top-edged pull against Chahar. The seamer was targeted again, this time with a pull in front of square for the maximum. In the end, the rain intervened to play killjoy.
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