Gujarat Titans (GT) beat Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) by 7 runs in match number 30 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Saturday.
IPL 2023: Lucknow Super Giants vs Gujarat Titans – HIGHLIGHTS
With the win, GT reached the fourth spot with 8 points in the IPL standing, while LSG remained at the second spot with same points but with a better net run-rate.
KL Rahul led from the front with the bat to score but Mohit Shamra held his nerve in the last over to get an unlikely win.
On a sluggish pitch, LSG were cruising along at 105 for 1 after 14 overs with 31 needed off 36 deliveries but ended at 128 for 7 at the end of 20 overs.
Veteran Mohit Sharma (2/17 in 3 overs) required to defend only 12 off the final over and he removed rival captain Rahul (68 off 61 balls) and kept hitting the blockhole length to conceded only five runs in the end with another three wickets lost in the process.
But the entire blame falls on the captain, who got 50 off 33 balls and then consumed another 28 deliveries for his 18. There were two 50 plus stands with Kyle Mayers (24 off 19 balls) and Krunal Pandya (23 off 23 balls) but in the end even the biggest Titans fans would agree that 136 was difficult to defend.
Left-arm wrist spinner Noor Ahmad bowled two brilliant overs to return with figures of 4-0-18-2, while Mohammed Shami’s international experience saw him concede just 5 in the penultimate over, leaving Mohit with a tricky assignment which he completed with elan.
LSG lost the game in the last five overs with Noor triggering the turnaround keeping Rahul in check.
Defending the total, Shami bowled a maiden opening over but he erred in his second over and was dispatched by KL Rahul for three successive fours to amass 14 runs.
Mayers too got into the act, smashing Rashid Khan for 16 runs with the help of back-to-back fours and a maximum. LSG raced to 53 for 0 in the first six overs.
IPL 2023 Points Table: Check Team Standings, Team Points, Wins, Losses
Rashid, however, had his man when he knocked over his stumps with a quicker delivery in the 7th over to break the partnership.
Krunal Pandya, who survived an LBW call and was then dropped by Abhinav Manohar off Rashid, build a fine partnership with the duo finding the boundary once every over to keep their chase on track.
However, wrist-spinner Noor Ahmad struck twice, removing Krunal Pandya (23) and Nicholas Pooran (1) and after a string of dot balls, things became tight for LSG.
Needing 23 off 18, Badoni joined Rahul but Mohit Sharma and Shami conceded just 5 runs each in the next two overs, leaving LSG 13 to get in the last six balls which they failed to get.
Earlier, Krunal Pandya bowled an economical spell of 2/16 while Marcus Stoinis took two wickets in the final over and Naveen-ul-Haq shined with brilliant pace-off bowling to help LSG restrict GT to a modest 135/6.
On a slow pitch where spinners and slower deliveries from the fast bowlers ruled the roost, Gujarat’s batters found it difficult to find their timing, barring captain Hardik Pandya’s 66 off 50 balls and Wriddhiman Saha hitting 47 off 37 balls. Such was the difficulty in stroke play that Hardik was the only batter from Gujarat to hit all of their sixes in their innings.
IPL 2023: Orange Cap Complete List of Batters with Most Runs, Check here
Electing to bat first, Gujarat suffered a huge blow in the second over when Shubman Gill fell for a two-ball duck after holing out to long-off against Krunal Pandya. Saha took three quick fours off Krunal, Naveen and Avesh Khan, before cutting on consecutive deliveries off Ravi Bishnoi for boundaries in the last over of power-play.
Post power-play, Saha nailed another cut off Stoinis for four, before Hardik, promoting himself to number three, made great use of fuller balls from Bishnoi to smash over extra cover for four and hit a six over long-off.
IPL 2023: Purple Cap Complete List of Batters with Most Runs, Check here
The 68-run partnership between Saha and Hardik came to an end in the 11th over when the former danced down the pitch to chip aerially off Krunal, but gave a simple catch to long-on.
In the next over, Abhinav Manohar fell cheaply to Mishra after his lofted drive on a flighted delivery was caught by deep cover running and diving to his right. Vijay Shankar was next to depart in the 15th over, castled easily by Naveen on an attempted slog, giving the fast-bowler his first IPL wicket.
Hardik ended 4.2 overs of boundary drought by pulling Bishnoi for four through square leg, followed by powerful sixes over deep mid-wicket and long-on, first of which fetched him his fifty in 44 balls in a 19-run over.
Skipper Hardik began the final over by pulling Stoinis for a flat six over deep mid-wicket. On the very next ball, Stoinis had the last laugh as Hardik pulled a slower ball straight to long-on. The Australian all-rounder ended the innings with a wicket as David Miller holed out to long-on.
(With inputs from Agencies)
Get the latest Cricket News, IPL 2023 Live Score, Orange Cap and Purple Cap holder details here
Comments
0 comment