Finance
Lucknow Super Giants defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by five wickets at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium on Friday. Skipper K.L. Rahul and left-arm spin all-rounder Krunal Pandya shared a 55-run partnership off 38 balls for the third wicket.
After starring with a three-for in a disciplined Lucknow bowling performance that restricted Hyderabad to 121/8 on a sluggish black soil pitch, Krunal teamed up with Rahul to complete an easy chase with four overs to spare.
Lucknow cruised to 35/0 in four overs while chasing 122. While Rahul was solid in his drives and flicks to pick three fours, Kyle Mayers was fortunate in that bails did not fall off after being beaten by Fazalhaq Farooqui, apart from picking two boundaries.
Mayers pulled straight to deep square leg, giving Farooqi success in the fifth over. Deepak Hooda hit Bhuvneshwar Kumar for a huge six down the ground in the final Power-play over. After four dot balls, Bhuvneshwar Kumar took a low one-handed catch to his left to complete a caught-and-bowled dismissal.
Rahul punched Adil Rashid through deep cover after the Power-play, which had only two overs of spin, and Krunal drove Aiden Markram sweetly through extra cover. Krunal used his feet well to launch Rashid over long-on for a six, before driving and grabbing T. Natarajan and Umran Malik for boundaries.
After slicing Umran over mid-off for four on the first ball of the 13th over, Krunal fell on the next ball in an attempt to cut and gave keeper Anmolpreet Singh an outside edge. Marcus Stoinis hit boundaries off fast bowlers through fine leg and down the ground as Lucknow edged closer to victory.
But Rahul was out in the 15th over, caught lbw while attempting a reverse sweep off Rashid’s leg-break. Rashid trapped Romario Shepherd lbw with a googly on the next ball. Nicholas Pooran swept Rashid for four before finishing the innings with a six off Natarajan over square leg.
Brief scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 121/8 in 20 overs (Rahul Tripathi 34, Anmolpreet Singh 31; Krunal Pandya 3-18, Amit Mishra 2-23) lost to Lucknow Super Giants 127/5 in 16 overs (KL Rahul 35, Krunal Pandya 34; Adil Rashid 2-23, Fazalhaq Farooqui 1-13) by five wickets
Source:OCN
