In the seventh match of the Tata Indian Premier League (IPL), Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) defeated Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by six wickets at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.
KL Rahul won the toss and asked the four-time winners to bat first. It never looked easy for bowlers to restrict down CSK in the first innings despite running out Ruturaj Gaikwad (1) in the third over itself. Opening for the first time this season, Robin Uthappa smashed a 27-ball 50 to give a fierce start to CSK. After the first innings, the Lucknow-based franchise had a tough target of 211 in front of them.
Lucknow completed the 211-run chase, which was the fourth-highest in the history of the competition, with three balls to spare. Quinton de Kock (61) and Rahul (40) stitched up a 99-run partnership to give LSG a good start in the second innings. The youngster from Delhi, Ayush Badoni in the end smashed the winning runs, while Evin Lewis hit a match-winning 23-ball 55. The game was turned on its head in the penultimate over of the second innings, bowled by Shivam Dube. The right-arm medium bowler gave up 25 runs in the over, leaving freshman Mukesh Choudhary with nine runs to defend in the final over.
On the other hand, the Chennai-based team had some positives to take from their first innings. The form of Uthappa along with Shivam Dube (49) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (16*) will be a huge help for the team going ahead in the tournament.
Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan and Andrew Tye had two scalps each for LSG. The LSG bowlers took wickets but conceded runs in the death overs.
For CSK, Dwaine Pretorius was impressive as he took two important wickets of the LSG openers. Furthermore, Dwayne Bravo made history as he became the leading wicket-taker in the history of the tournament after taking the wicket of Deepak Hooda in the game.
With this victory, Lucknow finally secured their first-ever victory in the IPL. Lewis, the southpaw from West Indies was adjudged Man of the Match for his brilliant half-century with six boundaries and three maximums.
Scorecard:
Chennai Super Kings: 210/7, Overs 20, Robin Uthappa 50, Ravi Bishnoi 2/24
Lucknow Super Giants: 211/4, Overs 19.3, Quinton de Kock 61, Dwaine Pretorius 2/32