The Lucknow Super Giants handed the Chennai Super Kings their first home defeat on Tuesday night, chasing down a target of 213 with three balls to spare. The hero of the night was Marcus Stoinis, whose unbeaten 124 off 63 balls was pivotal in LSG pulling off the highest successful T20 chase at Chepauk.
CSK looked to be in control of the match for a vast majority of the chase but the inability to pick up the wicket of Stoinis cost them in the end. LSG needed 74 from the last five overs, which while a tall order was picked off rather easily by Stoinis with the help of Nicholas Pooran and Deepak Hooda.
Sri Lankan Matheesha Pathirana was the pick of the bowlers for CSK, picking up two wickets for 35 runs. Deepak Cahar also had a solid performance with his two overs for just 11 runs and a wicket. All other bowlers were CSK were dismantled by Stoinis and company, a couple including Mustafizur Rahman going for over 14 runs per over.
With the win, the Super Giants move into 4th place in the IPL standings, with 5 wins and three losses through eight games. The Super Kings on the other hand fell to the fifth spot, now holding a record of 4-4. Both teams are still well and truly in the race for a playoff position, chasing the Rajasthan Royals who sit at the top with 7 wins and just the one loss.
Match Summary
The Lucknow Super Giants won the toss and elected to field on a ground that looked like it might have some dew later in the evening. Things started off well for the visitors as Matt Henry struck in the first over, getting Ajinkya Rahane to edge a drive to wicketkeeper KL Rahul.
The start could’ve been even better but Yash Thakur dropped Daryl Mitchell off Mohsin Khan in the third over in the deep. A tougher chance went through the hands of Henry as Gaikwad got a second life off a ball from Ravi Bishnoi.
Mitchell wasn’t at his fluent best, scoring just 11 off 10 balls before losing his wicket to Thakur. Gaikwad on the other hand took full advantage of the fielding restrictions, racing to 37 off just 19 in the first 6 overs.
Jadeja who was sent in early at number 4 spent some time at the crease but never got going. He ended up getting out in the 12th over for 16 off 19 balls. Luckily for CSK, Gaikwad had scored 71 off 39 at this point and was anchoring the innings beautifully.
Dube’s presence in the middle brought a big change in the scoring rate. He hit the first six of the innings in the 13th over and never looked back. He scored a brilliant 66 off 41 balls but was run out late in the innings by some good work from Stoinis the deep.
Gaikwad scored his first century of the season off just 57 balls and ended the innings not out on 108. He was severe on Yash Tahkur in his final over, hitting him for 6, 4, 4 off successive balls to bring up his hundred.
At the end of the Super King’s innings they had scored 210 for the loss of 4 wickets in their 20 overs.
The LSG innings started off well for the Super Kings, as Deepak Chahar got the new ball to swing in both directions. He got Quinton de Kock to chop one on to his stumps in the opening over to get Chennai their first wicket.
With the loss of de Kock, Stoinis entered the middle to join KL Rahul. The two players hit a few boundaries to get the chase going but Rahul got out within the powerplay.
From there Stoinis single handedly kept LSG in the contest by hitting boundaries whenever the rate was getting out of hand. He brought up his fifty off 26 balls, with six fours and two sixes.
It was still a huge uphill task though but luckily found a good sidekick with Pooran. The two smashed the opposition bowling and ended up requiring 17 off the last over.
Stoinis launched the first delivery from Mustafizur over long-on and then drilled the next straight back for four. Needing only 7 off the last 4, Stoinis cruises to a win, taking home the man of the match award in the process.
