The Lucknow Super Giants put together a magnificent chase to get their first win in the Indian Premier League.
Fifties from Quinton de Kock (61 off 45) and Evin Lewis (55* off 23) helped LSG chase down CSK massive total of 210/7 in some style. The chase went down to the wire but the win will do LSG’s confidence a whole world of good.
The CCI wicket has been good for batting but it seemed to bring the very best out of CSK opener Robin Uthappa. The 36-year-old veteran played shots all around the park to score a 27-ball 50 and give the CSK innings a blistering start.
But blistering starts can mean precious little in the T20 format unless there is someone around to finish what was started. Shivam Dube played a fine knock of 49 off 30 balls while others like Moeen Ali (35), Rayudu (27) and Dhoni (16 runs off 6 balls) chipped in with handy contributions.
On the bowling front, Ravi Bishnoi was in superb form in tough conditions. There was plenty of dew around but the leg-spinner returned splendid bowling figures of 24/2 in his four overs while everyone else took plenty of stick.
In reply, LSG openers KL Rahul and Quinton de Kock put on 99 runs to start the big chase. It kept the asking rate in check but the wicket of Rahul followed by that of Manish Pandey put the pressure back on the team from Lucknow.
But Evin Lewis came to the party just when his team needed him to. He got his fifty off just 23 balls and also helped smash Dube for 25 runs in the 19th over of the innings. It was an over CSK would look back at with regret.
The equation going into the last over was 9 runs needed off 6 balls.
The last over, bowled by Mukesh Choudhary, started with two wides. That made it 7 off 6 balls and then Ayush Badoni smashed a six off the next ball to tie the scores.
Another single saw LSG finish the job and leave the field with big smiles on their faces. CSK, on the other hand, will be left wondering a bit about their bowling choices.
On the bowling front, CSK’s bowlers took quite the hammering with only Dwaine Pretorius (31/2) managing to keep the LSG batters quiet.
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