Indian Premier League newbies LSG overcame record champions Mumbai Indians at their den, the Wankhede Stadium, to end all realistic chances of them reaching the playoffs for the 2022 season. MI’s disastrous run continued as the Rohit Sharma-led side faced their eighth consecutive defeat in the tournament.
MI became the first team to be virtually eliminated in the season in what has been a pedestrian run where nothing has gone right for them. On the night, they went down by a heavy margin of 36 runs chasing the 169-run target on what was another relatively dry surface in Mumbai.
Having restricted LSG to a score of 168, MI lost regular wickets after a decent start provided by their skipper Sharma, who finished as his team’s top-scorer for the night, making 39 off 31 deliveries. Rohit was able to stitch an opening stand of 49 runs with Ishan Kishan at the top. But from there, MI slipped to add only another 83 runs to their total from the last 13 overs of the run-chase.
Despite their captain showing good signs of form at the top, MI always walked on thin ice with their run-chase, with Kishan struggling woefully at the other end and making only eight off his 20 balls at the crease. His innings lacked any sort of flow and dented MI’s progress, which forced the rest of the batters to take undesired risks.
Among the remaining batters, only young Tilak Verma could take the fight back to LSG with his attractive 38 off 27 balls, featuring two fours and two sixes. But once he also departed, MI’s chase was doomed, especially with their mainstay Kieron Pollard, too, finding no timing through his painstaking 19 off 20 balls.
LSG’s bowling unit had a field day defending a low-key score of 168/6 set by their batters in the first half. Former MI left-arm spinner Krunal Pandya was the pick of the bowlers for his new team, bagging a three-wicket haul (3/18) off his four overs in a fine spell.
Pace duo Mohsin Khan (1/27) and Dushmantha Chameera (0/14) also emerged as heroes for their side. They were especially brilliant in the end-overs and took the game further away from the opposition.
LSG had a similarly insufficient performance with the bat in hand, but thanks to skipper KL Rahul’s resurgent hundred, they reached near the 170-run mark. Rahul made a slow start to his innings, which threatened to derail his team’s progress on a surface where runs on the board mattered. But soon picked up pace to almost singlehandedly keep LSG in the hunt.
The elegant Indian right-hander blazed his willow for an unbeaten 103 off 62 balls, including 12 fours and four sixes. It was Rahul’s fourth century-plus score of his flourishing IPL career, and one with great significance attached to it, as the next highest score for the innings was only 22 off 22 balls from No.3 Manish Pandey.
Rahul’s innings kept LSG in the game and ensured MI’s batters had to take some risks to keep the scoreboard moving on a drying surface against the likes of Krunal, his spin partner Ravi Bishnoi (1/28) and even part-timer Ayush Badoni (1/6), who picked up the prized scalp of an in-form Suryakumar Yadav.
MI failed to replicate LSG’s collective performance with the ball. Pollard was their surprise positive with ball in hand, taking two for eight off his two overs. But their mainstays, Daniel Sams (1/40), Riley Meredith (2/40) and even Jasprit Bumrah (1/31), proved too expensive for the track.
Brief scores
Lucknow Super Giants 168/6 in 20 overs (KL Rahul 103*; Kieron Pollard 2/8, Riley Meredith 2/40) beat Mumbai Indians 132/8 in 20 overs (Rohit Sharma 39, Tilak Varma 38; Krunal Pandya 3/19) by 36 runs
