Nicholas Pooran scored an unbeaten 44 off just 13 deliveries while Prerak Mankad hammered 64 not out as Lucknow Super Giants beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 7 wickets on Saturday evening. The victory took Lucknow to the fourth spot on the points with 13 points. However, for the Sunrisers, it’s all but over in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023.
LSG looked nowhere closer to chasing 183 successfully, given the start they got. Their reliable opener Kyle Mayors struggled big time against the Hyderabad attack and got off the mark on the 11 balls. In fact, the team registered its lowest-ever Powerplay score – 30/1. However, Pooran (44 not out off 13 balls), with assistance from domestic bulwark Prerak Mankad (64 not out, 45 balls) and Marcus Stoinis (40 off 25 balls), helped LSG get past the target with four balls to spare.
SRH were very much in control until the 15th over as LSG crawled to 114 for 2, needing 68 more from six overs. It was then Aiden Markram’s decision to give an extra over to part-time left-arm spinner Abhishek Sharma, who was walloped for five sixes in the 16th over, proved costly.
Stoinis thumped him for two maximums before being holed out at deep extra cover boundary. But Pooran came in and hit two 100m-plus sixes and one straight to completely change the equation.
Meanwhile, Saurashtra’s Mankad struggled to get going during the middle overs. But a pep-talk from mentor Gautam Gambhir during strategic time-out saw a sea-change in his approach as he showed more intent, hitting a straight six off T Natarajan.
Earlier, Krunal Pandya produced a couple of back-to-back high-quality deliveries before Heinrich Klaasen and Abdul Samad took Sunrisers Hyderabad to a competitive 182 for 6 after opting to bat first.
Not known as a big turner of the ball, LSG skipper Krunal (2/24 in 4 overs) bowled two identical classical left-arm orthodox deliveries, which had drift as well as enough turn to hoodwink Sunrisers skipper Aiden Markram (28 off 20 balls) and Glenn Phillips (0).
And the same delivery, pitched on the same length found Phillips going on back-foot to see it deviate past his bat and peg the off-stump back. That the ball gripped a bit on both occasions also helped the bowler’s cause.
However, Heinrich Klaasen (47 off 29 balls), inarguably SRH’s best batter, was in his natural attacking self as his three fours and an equal number of sixes took his team to a respectable total.
(With PTI Inputs)
Comments
0 comment