Pandya got three wickets, and then he scored 34 runs to help his team win easily.
Each side needs to take the risk of trying out new strategies early on so that they can prepare for what lies ahead. On Friday, the Lucknow Super Giants beat the Sunrisers Hyderabad with the same mentality and some strategic adjustments to their “Playing XI,” and the result was a five-wicket victory.
Krunal Pandya made a lot of people in Lucknow happy with his all-around effort. He took three wickets and scored 34 runs (23 b, 4×4, and 1×6) to help LSG beat SRH for the second time in as many meetings, making their head-to-head record 2-0. He and the captain, KL Rahul, didn’t let the SRH bowlers set the rules. Instead, they put up 55 runs for the third wicket in just 38 balls.
Pandya was finally caught by Amanpreet off Umran Malik in the 13th over, but by that time, LSG’s score had already hit 100. Even though LSG lost Mayers (13, 14b, 2×4) and Hooda (7) quickly after each other during the power play, they were still doing fine at 2/42. Mayers was caught by Agarwal at deep square leg off of Fazalhaq Farooqi, and Hooda was out because Bhuvneshwar took a great catch off of one of his own balls.
Rahul and Pandya were very patient on a sticky pitch, even as Markram changed bowlers. Unlike his last two games, Rahul got off to a good start. On the first ball he met from Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, he hit a boundary. After that, the Karnataka opener was unstoppable. With the help of four boundaries, he scored a season-high 35 runs off 31 balls.
In the 15th over, England’s Adil Rashid took two wickets with two straight deliveries. First, Rahul missed his reverse sweep and was caught right in front of the wicket. The next ball, a curveball that turned big got Romario Shepherd. After that, both Marcus Stoinis (10, 13b, 2×4, and Nicolas Pooran (11, 6b, 1×4, and 1×6) hit sixes to finish the game in 16 overs.
Rahul has used as many as seven bowlers in the past when he fielded first after winning the toss. He was clearly looking to try out the options he had. In batting, they didn’t put South African Quinton de Kock in the playing XI. Instead, they let the in-form Kayle Mayers continue to open the innings with captain Rahul. They also dropped Purple Cap winner and England pacer Mark Wood, who is reportedly sick with flu.
Jaydev Unadkat (0/26) was right on target in the beginning, not giving SRH openers Anmolpreet Singh and Mayank Agarwal the space they needed to swing their bats. Later in the game, experienced spinner Amit Mishra (2/23) kept SRH batters in check after fellow spinners Krunal Pandya (3/18) and Ravi Bishnoi (1/16) forced SRH batters to dance to their tune.
Pandya took advantage of the slow and sticky surface at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium by changing the speed of his deliveries. He took three wickets, including two in a row in the eighth over, which left SRH struggling at 63/4 at the halfway point. Stoinis caught Agarwal (8), and he caught Anmolpreet Singh’s (31, 26b, 3×4, 1×6) leg before the wicket. Then, with a faster delivery, he knocked the stumps of captain Aiden Markram (0).
Mishra is the second-highest wicket-taker in IPL history. Washington Sundar (16, 28b) and Adil Rashid (4) were both caught off guard by Mishra in quick succession. Sundar tried to hit the ball over long-on, but Hooda caught him at the boundary line. The same fielder then took another catch in almost the same spot, this time catching Rashid with the last ball of his spell to end his time at the wicket. This was also the best over for SRH, as Abdul Samad hit two sixes off Unadkat to score 13 runs.
On April 15, the Lucknow Super Giants will play their third home game against the Punjab Kings.
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