KL Rahul, Krunal Pandya share 55-run partnership to lead Lucknow Super Giants to comfortable five-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad
Posted Date – Friday, 07/04/23 at 11:30pm
PTI photo
Lucknow: Skipper KL Rahul and left-arm spinner all-rounder Krunal Pandya shared a 55-run partnership of 38 balls in Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana to lead Lucknow Super Giants to a comfortable win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana . Cricket Stadium on Friday.
Krunal, who came in for three in a disciplined bowling of Lucknow, joined forces with Rahul for a finish after keeping Hyderabad at a modest 121/8 on slow black-clay pitches. An easy chase with four gaps.
Chasing 122, Lucknow leads 35/0 in four rounds. While Rahul’s break and flick delivered three and four runs, Kyle Mayers got lucky as the bail didn’t drop after being beaten by Fazalhaq Farooqui, save for picking two boundaries.
Farooqi succeeded in the fifth as Mayers pulled straight to deep square leg. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was hit six by Deepak Hooda in the final inning of the power-play. After four penalties, Bhuvneshwar completed the catch-and-drop dismissal with a one-handed low to the left for Hooda’s wicket.
After a power play with just two spins, Rahul hit Adil Rashid through a deep screen, before Krunal sweetly drove Aiden Markram through an extra screen. Krunal used his feet well to launch Rashid six times before driving and pulling down the boundaries of T. Natarajan and Umran Malik.
After cutting Umran for four on the first ball of the 13th period, Krunal went down on the next ball, trying to cut in and give goalkeeper Anmolpreet Singh an outside. Marcus Stoinis brought Lucknow closer to victory by hitting the fast bowler’s boundary with a thin leg and ground.
But Rahul went down in the 15th over, caught lbw when Rashid broke his leg for a reverse sweep. On the very next ball, Rashid traps Romario Shepherd lbw with a google. Nicholas Pooran swept Rashid for four before finishing with a six off Natarajan near the end.
Brief score:
Sunrisers Hyderabad lost 121/8 in 20 games (Rahul Tripathi 34, Anmolpreet Singh 31; Krunal Pandya 3-18, Amit Mishra 2-23) and lost 127/5 in 16 games to Lucknow Super Giants ( KL Rahul 35, Krunal Pandya 34; Adil Mishra Rashid 2-23, Fazalhaq Farooqui 1-13) five wickets
