Marcus Stoinis' unbeaten 89 off 47 balls and Mohsin Khan's brilliant bowling display in the final over helped Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) register a thrilling 5-run win over Mumbai Indians (MI) on Tuesday night at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow.
With the win, Lucknow jumped to the third spot in the IPL 2023 points table with 15 points and edged closer to sealing their playoffs berth, with one league match to go. Mumbai though are now fourth in the points table with one last league match to go, against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
IPL 2023 points table after Lucknow beat Mumbai on Tuesday night.
(GFX: The Quint)
Riding on Marcus Stoinis' unbeaten 89 off 47 along with skipper Krunal Pandya's 49 off 42 LSG put up a good total of 177 runs on the board after being asked to bat first by Rohit Sharma.
In response, MI were off to a flying start. Skipper Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan were scoring runs at a brisk pace on a slow track and set a solid platform with their 92-run opening stand. Then, LSG turned the tables in the middle overs and MI struggled in the second half of their chase.
Tim David tried his best to get them over the line, but could not get the job done as Mohsin successfully defended 10 runs in the final over to hand his side two crucial points.
Rohit Put Lucknow Into Bat First
Batting first, LSH had a torrid start as Chris Jordan almost got Deepak Hooda to mistime his shot and the ball went high up in the air. Tim David ran behind towards deep extra cover to take the catch but the ball went through his hands and hit him on the chin.
Jason Behrendorff's double strike in the second over sent the opener Hooda and Prerak Mankad on two successive deliveries to reduce LSH to 12/2. With Quinton de Kock's couple of sixes and Krunal Pandya's boundary, LSG were 35/2 at the end of the Power-play.
Piyush came into the attack on the next over and picked up a wicket on the first ball of his spell. De Kock lunged forward and looked to push it away but the ball turned away and got the outside edge. Ishan Kishan took a sharp catch behind the stumps.
While the MI bowlers dominated the proceedings, Stoinis and Krunal steadied the innings as they were looking for twos and the odd boundaries.
The duo, then, launched the counter-attack with some lusty blows and LSG touched the 100-run mark in the 14th over. An over later, Stoinis freed his arms and hit it straight down the ground for a maximum.
Krunal Pandya was experiencing cramps while running and retired himself in the 16th over, falling one short of his half-century.
Madhwal trapped Stoinis lbw with a toe-crushing yorker but the batter was quick to review the decision. The Ball Tracking confirmed that the ball was missing the stumps and Stoinis survived a scare.
He made the best use of the reprieve and smoked it over the bowler's head for a maximum and brought up his fifty in fine fashion. A dot ball later, he lined up 4, 4, 6, 4 in the next four deliveries, taking 24 off the 18th over.
The Australian smashed two consecutive sixes against Behrendorff in the penultimate over. In the last over, Pooran swung it away behind backward square leg for a boundary. Stoinis gave fine finishing touch, lifting it high toward long-off for a maximum and Lucknow ended the innings with 177 with the loss of 3 wickets.
Mumbai's Chase
Chasing 178, Ishan and Rohit provided a strong start to MI, hitting four maximums and three boundaries as MI scored 58/0 in the powerplay.
When Ishan was continuing with his strokeplay, Ravi Bishnoi and Krunal Pandya brilliantly kept MI's run rate in check and LSG came back in the match in 10-15 overs.
In the 10th over, Rohit picked up Bishnoi's quicker googly and paddle-scooped it over a short fine with supreme ease for four. The spinner quickly bounced back and removed the MI skipper to break the 90-run opening stand and also completed his 50 IPL wickets.
Soon Ishan brought up his fifty with a boundary and followed that up with another four. But Bishnoi didn't let him stay longer at the crease and trapped him with a googly. Ishan went for the pull shot. It flew off the edge and went to deep square leg where Naveen-ul-Haq settled under it and took a sharp catch.
Ravi Bishnoi of Lucknow Super Giants celebrates the wicket of Ishan Kishan during match 63 of the Tata Indian Premier League between the Lucknow Super Giants and the Mumbai Indians at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow, on the 16th 2023
(Photo: BCCI)
After a few silent overs, Yash Thakur cleaned up the in-form Suryakumar Yadav cheaply for seven. Then, David and Nehal Wadhera collected two boundaries and MI were reeling at 125/3 in 15 overs and 53 needed in 30 balls to win.
A couple of overs later, Mohsin piled up further miseries with the wicket of Wadhera on the first ball of the 17th over and the equation read 39 off 18 balls. The next over, Yash overstepped and Tim David got a free hit. After one run coming off the free hit. Thakur removed Vishnu Vinod on a short ball.
David almost turned the tables in the penultimate over, hitting Naveen-ul-haq for two sixes and a four as the equation came down to 11 runs from the final over.
Then, Mohsin held his nerves and defended 11 runs with his well-executed Yorkers, giving just 5 runs off the over as LSG wrapped the win by 5 runs.
(With inputs from IANS)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)