All-rounder Marcus Stoinis’ fine half-century was complimented brilliantly by pacer Yash Thakur’s fifer as they guided Lucknow Super Giants to a comfortable 33-run win over Gujarat Titans in their IPL 2024 match on Sunday. Opting to bat, LSG rode on Stoinis’ 58 off 43 balls and his 73-run stand off 62 balls with skipper KL Rahul (33 off 31) for the third wicket to score 163 for 5. Nicholas Pooran made 32 off 22 balls to give the LSG innings the final flourish. It was a torrid chase for GT with Thakur (5/30) and Krunal Pandya (3/11) sharing eight wickets between them, and they were bowled out for 130 in 18.5 overs.
Opener B Sai Sudharsan (31 off 23) opened up his arms in the second over and struck Naveen-ul-Haq for two boundaries in the second over.
Sudharsan was at his attacking best as he caressed pace sensation Mayank Yadav past mid-off off his first delivery.
He followed that up with another four through midwicket. If that was not enough GT skipper Shubman Gill (19) struck another four to end Mayank’s over that yielded 13 runs.
Mayank, who impressed all with bowling 150 kmph thunderbolts consistently in the last two games, couldn’t even reach 140 kmph tonight and left the field with a side strain after his first over.
He did not return to the field thereafter. Gill, however, didn’t last long as he was cleaned up by Thakur in the sixth over.
While Sudharsan held one end, wickets kept tumbling at the other end in the form of Kane Williamson, who hit a tossed up delivery from Ravi Bishnot straight back to the spinner.
Krunal struck twin blows in the ninth over to peg back LSG’s chase.
He first ended Sudharsan’s entertaining knock as the batter top-edged one to Bishnoi at deep mid-wicket and then three balls later accounted for BR Sharath as LSG slumped to 61 for 4.
Krunal continued to trouble LSG as Darshan Nalkande became his next victim, caught by Thakur at short-fine leg as he went for a big shot.
Vijay Shankar made a run-ball 17 but it was not enough as GT simply couldn’t forge substantial partnerships to win the match.
Tewatia (30 off 25) also played a good hand but it came too late. Earlier, it was an eventful first over from Umesh Yadav (2/22) as, after being dispatched over deep backward square leg boundary by in-form Quinton de Kock in the second ball of the innings, he got his man a ball later.
De Kock went for a similar shot to get an outside edge and Noor Ahmad took a smart catch at the third man.
In the first ball of his next over, Umesh was pulled by Devdutt Padikkal to square leg fence but the pacer got his revenge inducing an outside edge from the left-hander and Shankar made no mistake at slip as GT slid to 18 for 2 after three overs.
Rahul, however, went about his business in a quiet fashion, plucking three boundaries off Spencer Johnson with delightful strokes through the square and straight down the ground to pick up 13 runs off the fourth over.
Rahul found an able ally in Stoinis as they played cautiously, dispatching bad deliveries to the fence and stabilised LSG’s innings.
Rahul was in good touch but just when he looked to spice up the run-rate, the right-hander perished.
The right-hander went for a huge heave down the ground off Nalkande, but mistimed the hit and Tewatia took a fine catch at long-on in the 13th over.
Stoinis got a reprieve on 43 and the Australian cashed in on the chance with both hands, clobbering Nalkande over his head for a maximum and in the process brought up his fifty in 40 balls.
Stoinis then cleared Nalkande over wide long on for another six but the young bowler had the last laugh as he got his man in the next ball, caught by wicket-keeper Sharath as the batter went for another maximum.
Pooran’s cameo took LSG to a par total.
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