Mumbai: Evin Lewis smashed a quickfire fifty, while Ayush Badoni impressed again as Lucknow Super Giants chased down 210/7 posted by Chennai Super Kings to register their first-ever win in IPL at Brabourne Stadium here on Thursday.
It was not only debutant LSG's first-ever IPL win, but also the third-highest run chase ever in the tournament.
CSK roared back after 10 overs with some wickets, but Lewis (55 no off 23 ball 4x6 6x3) at No.4 was a masterstroke. He struggled against Pretorius but held fort and smashed every bowler at will.
Badoni (19 off 9) living up to the tag of "Baby AB" was good and once again showed great composure under pressure. He walked across to sweep Shivam Dube over deep square off the first ball of the penultimate over and smoked two massive blows in the last over to seal the deal, needing nine of six balls.
Badoni and Lewis put on an unbeaten 40-run stand off just 13 balls for fifth wicket to take LSG to victory.
CSK's 211-run target looked good, but it was not a difficult task for LSG, chasing in the second innings with the dew factor playing to their advantage, added with the absence of Deepak Chahar.
LSG openers just needed to lay solid foundation for chasing a 200-plus target and KL Rahul (40 off 26) and Quinton de Kock (61 off 45) did well. Their start hampered the plans of CSK captain Ravidra Jadeja. He had to employ Dwaine Pretorious and Dwayne Bravo in the middle overs, not in death overs.
Manish Pandey failed to do much and departed cheaply on 5. Deepak Hooda was dismissed by Dwayne Bravo on 13 (8), following which he became the leading wicket-taker in IPL.
He now stands at the top among the bowlers with the most number of wickets in IPL with 171 wickets. He is followed by Lasith Malinga (170), Amit Mishra (166), Piyush Chawla (157 and Harbhajan Singh (150). Unfortunately, Robin Uthappa's blitz for CSK went in vain.
Uthappa and Dube scored big as CSK posted 210/7, batting first. Uthappa set it up at the top with a whirlwind 50 off just 27 balls and then Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja (17 off 9) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (16 no off 6) gave the finishing touches.
Uthappa and Moeen Ali laid a perfect foundation after CSK. The team belted 73 runs in the powerplay and lost Ruturaj Gaikwad's wicket as he was runout on 1 after facing 4 balls.
Uthappa brought up his fifty off just 27 balls, hitting eight fours and a maximum. He was trapped LBW by Ravi Bishnoi right after completing his half-century.
CSK raced to hundred in 9.1 overs after Moeen got a streaky boundary down to short third man. The fastest for any team in this year's IPL. Moeen was cleaned up by Avesh Khan on 35 (22).
Rayudu (27 off 20) along with Dube (49 off 30) then added a crucial partnership of 60 runs for the fourth wicket, before it was broken by Bishnoi as he dismissed Rayudu in the 17th over.
Dhoni began by smacking the first two balls he faced for six and a boundary. In fact, that was the first time in IPL that Dhoni smashed a six on the first ball he faced. He wrapped up the innings with yet another four as CSK finished on a high note.
Bishnoi (2 for 24) was stand out bowler for LSG as he performed better than others, whose bowling went over 9 per over on a track that was not helping the bowlers due to early dew.
He ended up with six per over. It was not Dushmantha Chameera's night. He misfielded twice and conceded boundaries. Next he put down a simple chance from Dube. (UNI)
