Staff Reporter.
Krunal Pandya was exceptional with both bat and ball as he led Lucknow Super Giants to a five-wicket win with 24 balls to spare over Sunrisers Hyderabad in their Tata Indian Premier League match at the BRSABV Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow, on Friday.
The win takes LSG to the top of the table. This is LSG’s second win in three games while SRH have lost both their opening matches in IPL 2023 and lie at the bottom of the log.
SRH, who won the toss and chose to bat first, found the going hard during their innings, thanks to some outstanding bowling from Pandya. The 32-year-old India international took 3-18 as LSG restricted the visitors to 121 for eight in 20 overs. He was complimented by Amit Mishra, who chipped in with 2-23 in four overs.
When it was LSG’s turn with the bat, Pandya stitched a match-winning 55-run partnership with his captain, KL Rahul. He hit four fours and a single six on his way to 34 runs off 23 balls. Rahul looked in good nick for his 35 runs which came off a leisurely 31 balls. Rahul’s unhurried approach steadied the innings and allowed other batters to express themselves.
Unlike SRH who found the going hard early on, LSG had a flying start, thanks to some wayward bowling from their opening bowlers. Kyle Mayers (13) and KL Rahul were more than happy to capitalise on the errors and harvested 24 runs off the first two overs and immediately put SRH on the back foot.
However, LSG’s rampaging start suffered a dent when SRH’s impact player, Fazalhaq Farooqi, dismissed Mayers. Mayers’ dismissal was followed by the wicket of Deepak Hooda (7) shortly afterwards. However, those wickets did little to affect LSG’s approach. If anything, LSG batted with greater intent.
Unlike SRH, LSG batters did not retreat into their shells. After a slow and laboured start by Mayank Agarwal (8) and Anmolpreet Singh (31), the shell-shocked SRH lineup chose a cautious approach after the dismissals of their overseas stars, captain Aiden Markram (0) and Harry Brook (8).
Rahul Tripathi normally goes at a strike rate of 134.35, while facing the LSG attack he was trudging along at 82.92. Washington Sundar (16 off 28) was even slower. He went at a strike rate of 57.14. Abdul Samad (21*) had the best strike rate among SRH batters. He was going at 210 but faced only 10 deliveries.
The mindset adopted by SRH was never going to work on the pitch they were playing on. It was one of the two black-soil pitches at the Ekana. Unlike the red-soil pitches, the black-soil pitches are slow and tend to keep low, thus favouring the spinners.
However, the LSG batters did not allow SRH bowlers to settle into any rhythm, they attacked both pacers and spinners in equal measure and that forced errors from the bowlers. As a result, the difference between how LSG and SRH bowlers went about their business was as different as day and night. It just looked as if the two sides were batting on different surfaces.
Krunal Pandya and KL Rahul’s partnership needed only 35 balls to reach 50 runs. The partnership lasted until the 13th over, and by then LSG had sights on victory. They needed 22 runs to win.
After breaking the duo’s partnership, SRH took a couple of consolation wickets, courtesy of Adil Rashid. The Englishman took two consecutive wickets in the 15th over and ended the match with 2-23 runs in three overs. Rashid was also SRH’s most successful bowler.
TEAMS:
Lucknow Super Giants: KL Rahul, Kyle Mayers, Deepak Hooda, Krunal Pandya, Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran, Amit Mishra, Ravi Bishnoi, Jaydev Unadkat, Yash Thakur.
Sunrisers: Mayank Agarwal, Anmolpreet Singh (wk), Rahul Tripathi, Harry Brook, A Markram (c), Washington Sundar, Abdul Samad, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Umran Malik, Adil Rashid.