Lucknow Super Giants beat Delhi Capitals by 50 runs in Match 3 of TATA IPL 2023 at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow.
Kyle Mayers starred with the bat on his IPL debut with a scintillating 73 off 38 balls while Mark Wood sparkled with the ball with a fiery spell of 5/14 to help LSG win by 50 runs.
Chasing 194, David Warner and Prithvi Shaw got DC off to a flier as they unfurled crunching drives, powerful pulls and silken flicks to score 40 from the first four overs.
KL Rahul then introduced Mark Wood into the attack and he breathed fire as he cleaned up Shaw with a beauty. And then disturbed the timber again next ball to send back Mitchell Marsh with another fast delivery to bring LSG back into the match. DC reached 47/2 at the end of the Powerplay.
Wood continued to ramp up pace and picked up his third wicket as he bounced out Sarfaraz Khan who tried to go for an upper cut but was caught at fine leg.
Things slowed down drastically for DC and Rossouw then breathed momentum into the innings as he went after Bishnoi and hit a couple of fours and a six in the 10th over to take the visitors to 75/3 at the half-way mark.
Bishnoi though bounced back to dismiss Rossouw in his next over and then sent back Rovman Powell as well to jolt DC.
Warner, who held fort at one end, then brought up his fifty off 45 balls as he pushed the accelerator button to score 15 off the Unadkat. But the required rate had gone over 16 by that time. The pressure kept increasing and the wickets kept falling as Avesh removed Aman Khan and Warner 56 (48) in the same over.
With 81 needed off four overs DC required a miracle which didn’t happen as Wood came back to dismiss Axar Patel (!6 off 11) and Chetak Sakariya to complete his five-wicket haul, the first of TATA IPL 2023 and help LSG win by 50 runs.
Earlier, Delhi Capitals captain David Warner won the toss and elected to field. They named Aman Khan, Pravin Dubey, Manish Pandey, Lalit Yadav and Abhishek Porel as their substitutes.
LSG named Yash Thakur, K Gowtham, Daniel Sams, Prerak Mankad and Amit Mishra as their substitutes. The DC pacers Khaleel Ahmed and Mukesh Kumar started off well as they found a hint of movement and bowled with discipline to give away just one four in the first three overs. The pressure was building, Rahul tried to release it with a six off Chetan Sakariya but the latter hit back to have him caught at deep square leg a ball later. DC could have had two wickets inside the powerplay but Khaleel Ahmed dropped Mayers at short third man when on 14. The away side restricted LSG to 30/1 in the Powerplay.
Mayers finally upped the ante as he smashed a couple of sixes off Mukesh Kumar and then went after Axar Patel to hit a four and a six to provide impetus to the innings. He smacked one over deep square leg off Kuldeep Yadav to bring up his fifty off just 28 balls on IPL debut.
Mayers continued to deal in sixes as he hit two more off Axar and then one off Kuldeep but against the run of play, Kuldeep struck as he had Hooda caught in the deep. One brought two as Axar cleaned up Mayers for 73 (38) with a brilliant delivery that turned miles.
Khaleen then came back to have Stoinis caught behind for 12(10) to dent LSG. Nicholas Pooran arrived and took the aggressive route and hammered a four and a six in the same over to make sure the pressure was not built.
Pooran(36 off 21) and Krunal Pandya counter-attacked to stitch together a 48-run stand off 26 balls. And Ayush Badoni then provided the final flourish with a 7-ball 18-run cameo including two sixes in the last over. K Gowtham was then introduced as the Impact Player by LSG and he finished the innings in style with a six to make it 22 off the last over and propel LSG to 193/6.
DC brought on Aman Khan as the Impact Player in place of Khaleel Ahmed in the 20th over of the first innings.
