Chennai Super Kings mark their grand return to Chepauk with a 12-point victory over Lucknow Super Giants
Posted on – Tue, 04/04/23 at 12:08pm
Chennai: Chennai Super Kings players greet each other after winning IPL 2023 cricket match against Lucknow Super Giants (PTI Photo)
Chennai: Backed by Moeen Ali, Tushar Deshpande and Mitchell Santner, the four-time champion Chennai Super Kings marked their grand return to Chepauk on Monday with a 12-match win over the Lucknow Super Giants here.
After Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway shared a 110-run start, Ambati Rayudu and skipper MS Dhoni along with Moeen and Shivam Dube propelled CSK to 217/7, with Kyle Mayers threatening to steal their thunder with a 22-ball 53.
His effort meant Lucknow was 73/0 in five rounds. But when LSG fell to 82/3 in the eighth, Moeen and Santner came on. Moeen, who picked 4-26, and Santner, who came back 1-21, kept the tension going and put Chennai back in the game.
Nicholas Pooran threatened to lead Lucknow to the final victory but Tushar Deshpande knocked him out as the visitors were 205/7 and Chennai scored a crucial two points in a high-scoring game.
Chasing 218, Meyers welcomed Ben Stokes with back-to-back fours from offside, followed by a clean 86m six from long range. Meyers made stroke play look ridiculously easy, punching and kicking Deepak Chahar the next.
Mayers then put Tushar Deshpande under the pump, emptying out midway and muscular on the long haul, 4 and 6, respectively, as Lucknow reached 50. Chahar was again taken to the cleaners in the fifth over as Mayers and Rahul scored 17 in the close, before the former reached his 50 for the second time in 21 balls.
But Moeen provided the breakthrough in the final inning of the power-play as Mayers swept hard straight to the deep center wicket. In the ensuing race, Deepak Hooda was unable to time his slog-sweep and fell back to long-on. Rahul also made a tough sweep and picked the deep mid-wicket.
Both Krunal Pandya and Marcus Stoinis tried to revive the chase with six points, but the former mistook Moeen to repel them, while the latter saw his leg stump rattled by off-liners.
But Pooran continued to chase Lucknow, shooting a 6-and-4 for 2 off the tee off by Rajvardhan Hangargekar. He then hit a 6 off Ravindra Jadeja’s extra cover, then swept back the point for another 6.
Puran’s blitz ended when he was hit from long range against Deshpande. Although he conceded 15 runs, he eliminated Ayush Badoni in the final, but by then the match was in Chennai’s favour.
Brief score:
Chennai Super Kings 217/7 in 20 games (Ruturaj Gaikwad 57, Devon Conway 47; Ravi Bishnoi 3-28, Mark Wood 3-49) beat Lucknow Super Giants 205/7 in 20 games (Kyle Mayers 53, Nicholas Pooran 32; Moeen Ali 4-26, Tushar Deshpande 2-45) 12 runs
