Lucknow, April 19
Openers KL Rahul and Quinton de Kock produced a chasing masterclass on a slow pitch to power Lucknow Super Giants to a comfortable eight-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings in their IPL match.
Asked to bat first, Ravindra Jadeja came up with a solid unbeaten 57 before Moeen Ali (30 off 20) and MS Dhoni (28 off 9) went on a six-hitting spree to take CSK to a fighting 176/6.
In reply, Rahul (82) and de Kock (54) batted with authority during their match-winning alliance of 134, the highest partnership for any wicket at the Ekana Stadium, as LSG scored 180/2 in 19 overs to recover from back-to-back losses and consolidate their position in the table. CSK, who came into the match with two straight wins, slumped to their third loss.
Guilty of not capitalising on his starts, Rahul finally lived up to the expectations, smashing nine fours and three sixes in his 53-ball knock, while de Kock overcame a scratchy start to hit five fours and a six in his 43-ball knock.
Rahul was the aggressor, playing some magnificent strokes to give LSG a flying start as the powerplay yielded 54 runs. After 10 overs, LSG were 89 for no loss.
A one-handed catch from Jadeja finally ended Rahul’s fabulous knock but it was too late.
Earlier, Rahul was spot on with his bowling changes as the pacers put the CSK batters under pressure initially before spinner Krunal Pandya tightened the noose in the middle overs.
“Feels good at the end of the day. When you win, it looks like you make all the decisions right. Impossible to get all right. Depends on the kind of wicket we are playing on and the kind of batters there are. We spend time doing homework on tactics and we spoke about them not settling against one style of bowling,” Rahul said. — PTI
Brief scores
CSK: 176/6 in 20 overs (Jadeja 57*, Rahane 36, Moeen 30, Dhoni 28*; Krunal 2/16) vs LSG: 180/2 in 19 overs (Rahul 82, de Kock 54)
Thursday’s result
MI: 192/7 in 20 overs (Suryakumar 78, Rohit 36; Harshal 3/31) vs PBKS: 183 all out in 19.1 overs (Ashutosh 61, Shashank 41; Bumrah 3/21)
Hero’s welcome?
New Delhi: An emotional homecoming awaits Rishabh Pant when he leads Delhi Capitals out at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here, hoping to halt the marauding run of Pat Cummins’ Sunrisers Hyderabad tomorrow. Placed fourth on the points table, SRH have set a different template with two of the highest-ever totals of 277/3 and 287/3. Pant will have to use his resources with extreme caution and guile on a track which will have good bounce and carry for a change. PTI