Lucknow Super Giants got back to winning ways after the defeat against Chennai Super Kings, to beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by five wickets in Match 10 of TATA IPL 2023 at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow.
Krunal Pandya starred with a brilliant all-round performance (3/18 & 34 off 23) to help LSG register their second win of the tournament. Krunal bowled an impressive spell of 4-0-18-3 as the LSG spinners applied the choke on the SRH batters and restricted them to 121/8. KL Rahul then played a composed knock of 35 off 31 balls as he added 55 runs off 38 balls with Krunal (34 off 23) to help LSG chase the target down with four overs and five wickets to spare.
Defending 121, SRH didn’t get off to the best of starts as Bhuvneshwar Kumar conceded 13 off the first over which included a four and five wides.
Rahul who had got off the mark with a beautiful cover drive off Bhuvneshwar then unfurled another lovely drive for a four off Washington. Mayers followed suit as he drove one through covers for the second four of the over and made it 11 off the over. Rahul and Mayers added 35 for the first wicket before Mayers looked to attack Farooqi but ended up hitting one straight to Mayank Agarwal at deep square leg.
Hooda looked to take the aggressive route as he lofted one straight down the ground off Bhuvneshwar Kumar for a six, but the experienced SRH pacer made a perfect comeback as he had Hooda brilliantly caught and bowled five balls later. LSG reached 45/2 at the end of the Powerplay.
Rahul and Krunal got together and mixed caution with aggression to keep the scoreboard ticking and not let the pressure build. The duo added 55 off 38 balls before Krunal edged one to the keeper on 34(23). But he had done his job and brought LSG closer to a win with 22 needed off 46. Krunal’s innings was laced with four 4s and a 6.
With 8 needed from 36, Adil Rashid sent back Rahul and Romario Shepherd off consecutive balls but Stoinis (10* off 13) and Nicholas Pooran (11* off 6) made sure there were no more slip-ups as they took LSG past the finish line with 24 balls to spare.
Earlier, Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Aiden Markram, won the toss and elected to bat. They made three changes to the side as Markram, Abdul Samad and Anmolpreet Singh replaced Glenn Phillips, Fazalhaq Farooqi and Abhishek Sharma. They named Heinrich Klaasen, Mayank Dagar, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Marco Jansen and Mayank Markande as their substitutes.
LSG made three changes to the side as Romario Shepherd, Jaydev Unadkat and Amit Mishra replaced Mark Wood, Avesh Khan and K Gowtham in the eleven. They named Ayush Badoni, Swapnil Singh, Daniel Sams, Prerak Mankad and Avesh Khan as their substitutes.
The LSG bowlers started off well as they didn’t concede a boundary for the first eleven balls. Anmolpreet Singh finally opened the boundary account as he pulled one over fine leg for a six off Jaydev Unadkat off the 12th ball. Mayank Agarway opened his boundary account as he swept one over short fine leg for a four off Krunal Pandya. The LSG all-rounder bounced back and had Mayank caught at short extra cover for 8, three balls later to provide the first breakthrough for his team.
Krunal gave away just six runs in the over and Unadkat bowled a tight fourth over conceding just three. Anmolpreet then released some pressure as he hit two consecutive fours off Krunal in the fifth over. Yash Thakur bowled an eventful over the end the powerplay as he conceded a couple of fours and thought he had the wicket of Anmolpreet as the umpire raised his finger on the LBW appeal but the batter reviewed it and replays showed it was going over the stumps and the decision was reversed. SRH reached 43/1 at the end of six overs.
Bishnoi and Krunal kept things tight to build pressure and reaped rewards as Krunal trapped Anmolpreet LBW for 31(26). The umpire gave it out, the batter reviewed but replays showed it was umpire’s call as it was clipping leg. Krunal produced a beauty next ball as he pegged back SRH captain Markram’s off-stump to make it two wickets in two balls. Bishnoi made it three wickets in two overs for LSG as he had Harry Brook stumped with a wily leg spinner as the batter looked to play for the googly to reduce SRH to 55/4.
SRH reached 63/4 at the halfway mark.
Runs were hard to come by and SRH went without a boundary for 29 balls before Tripathi smacked one straight down the ground off Amit Mishra in the 15th over.
Krunal bowled another tight over, giving away just one run to finish off a brilliant spell of 4-0-18-3.
Tripathi hit another rare four in the next over with a powerful reverse sweep off Mishra. However his patient knock of 34(41) ended in the next over as Mishra pulled off a very good catch at short third man off Yash Thakur. Mishra was in action once again as he picked up his first wicket, having Washington Sundar (16 off 28) caught at long on and then his second off the last ball of his spell, having Adil Rashid caught at long off. In between he was hit for a four over extra cover by Rashid. Mishra finished with impressive figures of 4-0-23-2.
LSG introduced Ayush Badoni as their Impact Player in place of Mishra.
Abdul Samad then provided the much-needed final flourish as he hit two sixes in the last over off Unadkat to take SRH to 121/8. He remained unbeaten on 21 off 10 balls with two sixes and a four.
SRH introduced Fazalhaq Farooqi as their Impact Player in place of Rahul Tripathi at the start of their bowling innings.
