Nicholas Pooran hammered an audacious sensational 29-ball 75 while skipper K.L Rahul scored a trademark patient half-century as Lucknow Super Giants posted 214/6 in 20 overs against Mumbai Indians in Match 67 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at the Wankhede Stadium here on Friday.
Coming in with his team crawling at 69/3 at the halfway mark, Pooran blasted five boundaries and eight maximums, making him the player to hit the maximum number of sixes for LSG, as he and Rahul cobbled together a superb partnership in which the West Indies batter did most of the scoring.
Pooran raced to his fifty off 19 balls and raised a 100-run partnership off 40-odd deliveries to set up LSG on course for a total past 200. Nuwan Thushara and Piyush Chawla claimed three wickets each — picking three wickets without the addition of a run in the death overs to pull things back for the inexperienced Mumbai Indians bowling unit in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah after skipper Hardik Pandya won the toss and elected to bowl first.
Earlier, Lucknow Super Giants got off to a poor start losing Devcutt Padikkal, who came in for Quinton de Kock and opened the innings for the first time this season, was trapped lbw by Nuwan Thushara off the third ball of the opening over, in which he bowled two wides. Padikkal left for a zero, exhausting one DRS review in the process.
Skipper K.L Rahul and Marcus Stoinis propelled the score to 49, with the overseas player hitting five boundaries as he scored 28 off 22 balls before he was sent back by Piyush Chawla, LSG down to 49/2 in the sixth over.
Stoinis was trapped plumb in front by a wrong’un and LSG were down to 69/3 when Deepak Hooda was out for 11, caught brilliantly by Nehal Wadhera off Chawla. He failed to keep down his slice through off-side and Wadhera pulled off a double-handed catch off a perfectly-timed dive. LSG were 69/3 at the halfway stage.
But Nicholas Pooran, who stepped into the field, changed the complexion of the game with a stunning assault on the Mumbai Indians bowling, hammering five sixes in his first 35 runs.
Pooran put on a dazzling display of power-hitting as he started his extraordinary knock with a six off Anshul Kamboj in the 11th over. In the next over by Kamboj, Pooran smashed a four and two sixes, picking the attempted yorkers cleanly out of the ground. Hardik was hit for two sixes in the 14th over as the Mumbai Indians bowlers bowled to the West Indies batter’s strength, giving him width and an opportunity to chance his arms.
Pooran went berserk in the 15th over, hitting Arjun for sixes off successive balls, picking the full-tosses cleanly as he raced to his third fifty of IPL 2024 off just 19 balls.
Tendulkar walked off the ground with cramps and Pooran celebrated the landmark by hammering Naman Dhir, who completed the over, for a six and four off successive deliveries. He handed Nuwan Thushara, brought in by Hardik Pandya to quell the rampaging Pooran, by hitting him for back-to-back boundaries before the Sri Lankan pacer had the last laugh, getting him to swing straight down to Suryakumar Yadav at long-on.
Meanwhile, K.L Rahul, who was soldiering on from the other end, completed his half-century off 37 balls, hitting two boundaries and three maximums as he and Pooran raised 109 runs for the fourth wicket off 44 balls, with Pooran doing the bulk of the scoring. Rahul kept one end intact as he has done throughout the season, building up the platform for Pooran to launch his audacious attack.
However, Mumbai Indians pulled things back by taking three wickets on the same score, as Arshad Khan (0) and K.L Rahul fell quickly. Thushara claimed two of those wickets off successive balls while Chawla got the third as MI salvaged the situation.
Ayush Badoni blasted 22 off 10 balls and Krunal Pandya struck 12 off 7 as Lucknow Super Giants struck 36 runs off the last 17 balls to take their score past the 200-run mark. Badoni struck two sixes and a four in the last two overs as LSG set Mumbai Indians a challenging target.
Brief scores:
Lucknow Super Giants 214/6 in 20 overs (Nicholas Pooran 75, K.L Rahul 55; Nuwan Thushara 3-28, Piyush Chawla 3-29) against Mumbai Indians