The Lucknow Super Giants strengthened their position atop the points table with a convincing eight-wicket victory over the Chennai Super Kings. The bowling unit had an excellent day on the field, except during MS Dhoni’s stint at the crease, under the guidance of captain KL Rahul. The seasoned stumper-batter looked excellent with the bat, and as a result, there is now debate regarding his batting position once more.
When CSK batted first, they lost wickets like a house of cards and were once 90/5. Even if players like Sameer Rizvi and Moeen Ali weren’t playing well, Dhoni took his time and sent them past him. To assist CSK in scoring 176 runs in the first inning, Dhoni, 42, took over after they returned to the pavilion. He hit 28 runs off only nine balls, and Ravindra Jadeja added 57 runs off 40 deliveries.
Also read: IPL 2024: Match 34’s highlights from Lucknow Super Giants’ second innings vs CSK
Quinton de Kock and Rahul gave LSG a fantastic start in the chase. The opening pair stitched together a partnership of 134 runs, which decided CSK’s fate for the evening. Nicholas Pooran and Marcus Stoinis helped the side cross the finish line with one over left after Jadeja’s stunning removal of Rahul for 82 runs and Mustafizur’s wicket of Quinton for 54 runs.
For what reason is Dhoni ranked number eight?
Because of his current form, the great cricketer should bat at number five and dominate the game. Perfect conditions to face LSG existed, but he postponed things once more, which may have lost CSK the game as captain Ruturaj later revealed that they ultimately fell short by 15 runs.
2. Lucknow Super Giants’s inspiring pair
Despite not being particularly dangerous with the bat, KL Rahul and Quinton de Kock managed to do the job. They were fortunate with the bat as well, although winning games does occasionally depend on luck for cricket players. Ultimately, their 130-run collaboration proved to be deadly as LSG secured their fourth victory of the year.
The losing skipper, Ruturaj Gaikwad, said:
We finished well with the bat, couldn’t have asked more with the situation we were in. After powerplay we couldn’t capitalize on the start we got and we kept losing wickets at regular intervals. I would say we were 10-15 runs short. Slightly difficult with such a total, with the impact sub rule you need 10-15 or even 20 runs extra. Pitches like these seem sluggish to start off with but with dew coming on it gets better, 190 would have been a good score.
One area we would like to improve in taking wickets in the powerplay. That will put pressure on the opposition. We need to work on it. Good to play them again (next game at Chepauk). We will come up with good homework done now that we have three home games.
Winning skipper and POTM KL Rahul said:
Feels good at the end of the day, When you win, looks like you make all the decisions right. Impossible to get all right. Depends on the kind of wicket we are playing on and the kind of batters there are. We spend time doing homework on tactics and strategy and we spoke about them not settling against one style of bowling. We worked really hard at training, good to see the team sticking to that. Halfway stage, I would have happy with 160.
Felt the wicket was slow, a bit of grip but not too much. 160-165 would have been ideal. But MSD walks in and the bowlers feel intimidated. He walks in and bowlers were under pressure, the crowd was really loud, he has done it in the past. Felt that if we bat well, we could chase it down. I have been trying to assess the situation and today it came off. With Chennai’s spinners, they tried to put brakes on us.
We tried to get to a good start. Tried to take them down, luckily it came off. When your partnership goes on, you can take a few more chances. Glad that it happened. I don’t think the crowd in Chennai will roar for us. I told the boys in huddle to get used to the crowd cheering for CSK because we would get it again in a few days. Looking forward to playing CSK in a couple of days.
India
