LUCKNOW: Marcus Stoinis’s unbeaten knock 89(47)* and collective economical spells from Lucknow Super Giants bowlers sealed 5-run victory against Mumbai Indians in an Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 match at Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Tuesday.
This victory takes LSG one step closer towards clinching the playoff spot as they are behind Chennai Super Kings. Yash Dayal displayed nerves of steel as he nailed his yorkers and defended 11 off the last over to win a nail-biter for the home side.
Chasing 178, Mumbai Indians got off to a breezy start. Ishan Kishan was off the blocks quickly as he swept one powerfully behind square leg for a four off Krunal Pandya in the first over and then took on Mohsin Khan, for a four in the second over.
Kishan cracked another four off Naveen-ul-Haq before Rohit Sharma showed the first signs of aggression as he charged down the track and clobbered a 92m six to welcome Yash Thakur into the attack.
Rohit smacked another six off Naveen before a splendid effort from Bishnoi on the ropes nearly sent him back. Bishnoi couldn’t maintain his balance after taking a leaping catch at deep backward square leg but the momentum pushed him onto the ropes and he couldn’t throw the ball inside the ropes. MI had an excellent Powerplay as they reached a score of 58/0.
Rohit and Kishan kept the scorecard ticking mixing singles and twos with boundaries but it was Ravi Bishnoi who provided the crucial breakthrough as he had Rohit (37 off 25) caught at long-on to break the 90-run opening stand.
Kishan then brought up his fifty, off just 34 balls as he pulled one over square leg for a four off Krunal. He pulled another one over mid-wicket two balls later to bring up the 100 in the 11th over. Bishnoi struck again in his next over as he had Kishan caught at deep square leg for 59(39) to help LSG crawl back into the match.
Impact Player Yash Thakur then provided a crucial moment in the match as he made Suryakumar Yadav drag one onto the stumps as he paddled it onto his stumps trying to scoop.
With 47 needed off 24, Mohsin came back and dismissed the in-form Nehal Wadhera (16 off 20). MI introduced Vishnu Vinod as their Impact Player as he walked out to bat at the fall of Wadhera’s wicket. David cracked a huge six in the over but, overall it was a decent over for LSG with 8 runs and a wicket and the equation reading 39 needed off 18.
Yash Thakur then bowled a fantastic over as he had Impact Player Vishnu Vinod caught at deep square leg and gave away just nine runs as the equation came down to 30 needed off 12.
After a dot off the first ball of the penultimate over, David hammered a huge 90m six over wide long-on off Naveen. He crashed the next one too long off and scampered through for a couple of. Naveen then bowled a waist-height no ball as David missed his swing and the keeper too couldn’t stop it and it ran away for four.
Naveen bounced back with two dot balls as David missed his swings across the line. David though finished the over in style with another six as he hammered one over long-on to make it 19 runs off the over.
With 11 needed off the last over, Krunal handed the ball to Mohsin. The left-arm pacer showed nerves of steel as he nailed his yorkers to perfection and gave away just five runs to spark wild celebrations in the LSG camp. Mohsin bounced back really well after going for 13 in his first over and finishing with 3-0-26-1.
Earlier in the innings, MI started the game on a strong note as Jason Behrendorff provided the visitors with an ideal start by picking up two wickets in two balls in the third over. He dismissed the out-of-form batter Deepak Hooda on 5(7). Prerak Mankad became his second victim as the young batter tried to place the ball in the offside region but there was a faint outside edge.
Mankad walked back towards the dugout with a golden duck in his account with the catch taken by Ishan Kishan.LSG ended the powerplay without losing any further wickets at 35/2.
MI bounced back as Piyush Chawla came back into the attack and dismissed left-handed batter Quinton de Kock on 16(15). From that moment Marcus Stoinis and Krunal Pandya built a partnership slowly taking the game into the final overs. As the unbeaten partnership reached the 82-run mark, LSG skipper Krunal Pandya went out following an injury.
This brought the end to LSG’s highest partnership in the IPL this season and Nicholas Pooran came. Pandya scored 49(42). Stoinis took up the role of a finisher to accelerate the pace of the innings. Chris Jordan took the ball in his hands to bowl the 18th over.
Stoinis took his chance against Jordan and struck two sixes and three fours to score 24 runs in a single over. He kept up the momentum and struck two consecutive sixes to get 15 runs in the 19th over.
Stoinis didn’t take his foot off the accelerator as he sent the ball flying into the stands on the final ball of the innings to take LSG’s score to 177/3 in 20 overs.
Brief Scores: Mumbai Indians 172/5 (Ishan Kishan 59(39), Rohit Sharma 37(25) and Ravi Bishnoi 2/26) vs Lucknow Super Giants and Lucknow Super Giants 177/3 (Marcus Stoinis 89(47)*, Krunal Pandya 49(42) and Jason Behrendorff 2/30) vs Mumbai Indians. (ANI)