Lucknow: The Lucknow Super Giants’ struggles at home continued as Delhi Capitals romped home to an eight-wicket win at the Ekana Stadium on Tuesday.
Despite having a good start, LSG only managed to put 159/6 on the board as boundaries proved to be hard to come by. They were 87/0 at the halfway mark but were restricted to just 72 runs in the last 10 overs.
The track seemed to ease out when Delhi Capitals came out to bat and the visitors cruised to victory in just 17.5 overs, losing only the wickets of Karun Nair and Abhishek Porel in the process.
While Nair made 15 with two boundaries and a six, Porel hit his first half-century of the season, scoring a fine 36-ball 51 with the help of five hits to the boundary line and a six.
Thereafter, LSG’s former skipper KL Rahul let his willow do the talking, scoring an unbeaten 57 (42b, 3×4, 3×6) — his third half-century of the season. He finished off the match in style by hitting a six off Prince Yadav and also became the fastest to score 5000 IPL runs.
The unbroken 56-run stand for the third wicket with captain Axar Patel (34, 20b, 1×4, 4×6) saw Delhi close off the game with a fair degree of ease.
Earlier, it was pacer Mukesh Kumar, who led a stunning Delhi Capitals’ fightback with figures of 4/33.
LSG started their innings with two right-handed openers Aiden Markram (52) and Michell Marsh (45) at the crease. But Axar still took the new ball himself and showed that he was right to do it. The left-arm spinner conceded just three runs and almost had Marsh chopping the last ball of the over onto his stumps.
Marsh took his time getting going but Markram found his touch quicker and LSG reached 51/0 after the Powerplay. It was just a par score but no wickets had been lost and a base had been established for the batters to follow.
Markram scored 24 off the first 14 balls he faced and is starting to look like a batter who now gets Indian conditions. That is a big plus for LSG but the other batters need to step up too.
He was the first to go as Tristan Stubbs got him caught in the deep off Dushmantha Chameera after scoring his fourth half century of the season. His 33-ball 52 was studded with two boundaries and three sixes and he shared an 87-run opening stand with Marsh.
This is when it all started to go wrong for LSG. Soon, left-hander Nicholas Pooran was castled by Mitchell Starc after scoring just nine. This was the fifth-time Starc got Pooran in a T20 game.
The real drama was yet to come and it started unfolding in the 14th over when Mukesh landed some crucial blows on LSG, getting the wickets of Abdul Samad and Marsh in one over.
The Samad experiment at No.4 didn’t work for LSG as the batter offered a return catch to the bowler after scoring only nine runs. Mukesh, then, yorked Marsh (45, 36b, 3×4, 1×6) to leave LSG struggling at 110/4 in 14 overs.
LSG tried to respond to Mukesh’s double strike by bringing in Ayush Badoni as an Impact Player and the batter could’ve been dismissed on three by Mukesh in his next over had Stubbs not dropped him at sweeper cover.
Badoni’s 21-ball 36 with the help of six boundaries, including three consecutive boundaries in the last over of the innings helped LSG cross the 150-run mark. David Miller remained unbeaten at 14.
Skipper Rishabh Pant, who walked in at No 7, returned to the dugout after a two-ball duck. He seemed visibly pissed and his poor form is only adding to LSG’s troubles.
As a result of the defeat, LSG have dropped down to fifth in the points table and their net run-rate is now in the negative. Delhi, meanwhile, are tied with Gujarat Titans at the top with 12 points.