Lucknow: Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) made it two wins in a row and moved to the third position in the table as they beat Mumbai Indians (MI) in a thrilling Match of IPL 2023 at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium here on Tuesday night.
Ice-cool 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. Marcus Stoinis' power-packed knock of 89 not out (47), his highest score in the IPL, combined with a composed 49(42) from captain Krunal Pandya propelled the home side to a competitive 177/3 after they were reduced to 35/3 inside the first seven overs.
Ravi Bishnoi then shone with the ball with a brilliant spell of 4-0-26-2 as the LSG bowlers held their nerve in the slog overs to pull off a five-run win.
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, flicking one for a six over deep backward square leg and another one through the same region for a four in the second over.
Kishan cracked another four off Naveen-ul-Haq before Rohit Sharma showed first signs of aggression as he charged down the track and clobbered a 92m six over deep mid-wicket 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 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 removed the in-form Nehal Wadhera (16 off 20), caught at deep square leg. 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 to long off and scampered through for a couple. 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 didn't give an inch to David (32 not out off 19) and Cameron Green (4 not out off 6). The MI duo could manage just five runs as Mohsin bowled a spectacular over 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, Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bowl. They made two changes to the starting XI as Chris Jordan and Akash Madhwal replaced Vishnu Vinod and Kumar Kartikeya. The away team named Ramandeep Singh, Vishnu Vinod, Tristan Stubbs, Kumar Kartikeya and Raghav Goel as their substitutes.
Lucknow Super Giants made five changes to the starting eleven as Ayush Badoni, Deepak Hooda, Mohsin Khan, Naveen-ul-Haq and Swapnil Singh replaced Kyle Mayers, Yash Thakur, Yudhvir Singh, Amit Mishra and Avesh Khan. Yash Thakur, K Gowtham, Daniel Sams, Yudhvir Singh and Kyle Mayers made it to their substitutes list.
Mumbai Indians started off well and could have had an early wicket when Deepak Hooda miscued his loft off Chris Jordan in the second over, but Tim David couldn't hold on to a tough running catch. He didn't make any mistake when presented with a chance for the second time though as Hooda again miscued a swing across the line and David pouched it calmly at mid on in the next over from Jason Behrendorff. Behrendorff made it two wickets in two balls as he had LSG's last match hero Prerak Mankad caught behind for a duck.
In between Quinton de Kock played a glorious pick up shot for a six over deep backward square leg. Captain Krunal Pandya then hit a well-timed four through extra cover off Hrithik Shokeen and De Kock lofted a one-handed six over long off, off Jordan as LSG reached 35/3.
Piyush Chawla then arrived into the attack and just like he's done it throughout the season, struck immediately, off his first ball, as he had De Kock (16 off 15) caught behind off a brilliant googly.
Marcus Stoinis finally broke the shackles as he charged down the wicket and thumped a six over wide long on off Hrithik Shokeen as LSG brought up their 50 in the 8th over. He hit another maximum in the next over, slog sweeping Chawla over deep mid-wicket. Akash Madhwal then bowled a disciplined first over to give away just five as LSG reached 68/3 at the halfway stage.
Krunal and Stoinis played calculated cricket mixing singles and twos with boundaries as they brought up the 50-run stand off 34 balls and LSG's hundred in the 14th over. It was a mixed period for LSG as Stoinis cracked another muscular six off Green but LSG then suffered a blow as Krunal had to walk off the field retired hurt in the 16th over.
He seemed to have injured his leg trying to take a single. Madhwal then produced a brilliant yorker which floored Stoinis and hit him on the pads, the umpire gave it out on the appeal but Stoinis reviewed it and Ball Tracking showed it was missing leg. Stoinis got lucky again as he survived a run out chance after he had given up trying to run through for a risky single off the next ball.
Stoinis then brought up his fifty, off 36 balls, with a thumping six over long on off Jordan. He went berserk in the over to provide crucial impetus, hitting three more fours and a six to make it 24 runs
off the 18th over. He continued the momentum in the next over as he cracked two more sixes off Behrendorff in the penultimate over to make it 39 off two overs.
Stoinis then finished the innings off in style as he lofted a one-handed six over long off off Madhwal
to propel LSG to 177/3. The home team smashed 54 in the last three overs as Stoinis remained unbeaten on 89 off 47 balls.
LSG brought in Yash Thakur as the Impact Player, in place of Prerak Mankad, at the start of the second over off their bowling innings. (UNI)
