After restricting Mumbai Indians to paltry 144, Lucknow Super Giants huffed and puffed to victory in a rather dull match of the IPL 2024 so far.
Marcus Stoinis was the star of the day as his all-round performance of 62 with the bat and 1 for 19 with the ball helped LSG register a crucial four-wicket win over MI at the Ekana Cricket Stadium, here on Tuesday.
In the chase of below par score of 145 at the slow wicket, Nuwan Thushara landed an early strike, dismissing Arshin Kulkarni for the golden duck. KL Rahul dropped the anchor role as he was 5 off 13 after three overs and already set up to stay there till the end, giving up the responsibility of making a play to the other batters.
Thushara and Gerald Coetzee had given KL Rahul two freebies down leg side and he was unable to connect with either of them. But Coetzee was smoked for 15-runs in the second over courtesy of back-to-back boundaries from Stoinis.
LSG lost skipper Rahul on 28 to a wonderful catch by Mohammad Nabi off Hardik Pandya which pulled Mumbai back in the game as both added 58 off 40 deliveries for the second wicket.
Stoinis was looking good and Deepak Hooda was decent in the four balls he had faced. It was an uphill task for MI as they needed a few wickets to script a turn around on a wicket which looked slightly sluggish.
Stoinis was impressive with another fifty, but LSG stumbled toward the end, taking the game until the last over. The experience of Nicholas Pooran came in handy as the home team successfully went past the finish line with 4 balls to spare.
LSG moved to the third spot in the IPL 2024 points table, leapfrogging CSK while MI are ninth in points table with just 3 wins in 10 matches.
Even if MI win their remaining 4 matches, they might not be able to reach the playoffs.
Earlier, Nehal Wadhera’s 46 and Tim David’s late fire of 35 propelled Mumbai Indians to 144/7.
Lucknow came with a different bowling plan in the Powerplay overs against Mumba