Lucknow Super Giants continued their impressive run at home as they defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by five wickets on Friday to jump to the top of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 points table.
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LSG romped home with five wickets and nearly four overs to spare after restricting SRH to a modest 121/8 at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, where they had defeated Delhi Capitals by 50 runs at the start of their campaign.
Sunrisers, as a result, remained at the bottom of the table as they suffered a second defeat in as many games, having lost by 72 runs against Rajasthan Royals at home last weekend.
Looking back at the events of 10th match of the season, we bring to you some of the top moments from the game:
Krunal Pandya’s all-round display
Krunal heroics with ball followed by bat was no doubt the standout performance of the day. The all-rounder would first push the Sunrisers on the backfoot with a three-wicket burst, two of which came off consecutive deliveries in his second over with Hyderabad never really recovering from the collapse.
LSG’s Krunal Pandya celebrates with Marcus Stoinis after dismissing SRH opener Mayank Agarwal. Sportzpics
He would sign off with figures of 3/18 from his four overs before producing a 23-ball 34, stitching a match-winning stand with skipper KL Rahul worth 55 that laid the foundation for a comfortable chase for Lucknow.
Mishra diving around like a youngster
Amit Mishra is among the oldest players participating in this year’s IPL; the 40-year-old leg-spinner after all is among the handful who featured in the inaugural IPL in 2008. Mishra though, proved age is just a number by pulling off a superb catch that would give some of his younger teammates a run for their money.
The incident occurred during the 18th over of the SRH innings with Rahul Tripathi, who was batting on 35, went for an uppercut off a slower bouncer from Yash Thakur. Mishra ran to his left from short third man and put in a dive to complete what was a solid contender for ‘Catch of the Day’.
A debut to forget for Markram
It was a day to remember for Pandya and Mishra, not so much for Aiden Markram, who was dismissed for a golden duck on debut as Sunrisers captain. Markram was in superb form heading into the IPL, having smashed a scintillating 175 against Netherlands just a few days ago, and would’ve hoped for a solid start to his reign as Sunrisers captain.
Markram, though, was squared up by a delivery from Pandya that straightened along the off stump and knocked it over after beating his outside edge, resulting in two wickets in as many balls for the left-arm spinner in his third over of the evening.
Samad once again impressing with the bat
Among the positives in what was otherwise a forgettable day in office for the Sunrisers was the manner in which Abdul Samad went about business, smashing an unbeaten 21 off just 10 balls including a four and two maximums to lend some respectability to the Sunrisers’ batting performance.
Samad made an impact with the bat two games in a row now, having smashed an unbeaten 32 in a losing cause against RR on Sunday. While there are plenty of areas of concern for the Sunrisers as far as their batting department is concerned, the middle-order appears to be in good hands with the J&K batter around though he would use some support at the other end.
Two-in-two for Rashid
Krunal wasn’t the only bowler to be on a hat-trick today; English leg-spinner Adil Rashid too made an impact towards the fag end of the match, though by that time the game was already out of Hyderabad’s reach and merely served to delay Lucknow’s victory.
Rashid would first get Rahul trapped leg-before at the start of the 15th over, with the LSG skipper burning a review on his way back to the pavilion as the ball was shown to be hitting the middle stump. While he got rid of Rahul with his stock delivery, he would use the wrong’ un to dismiss Romario Shepherd the very next ball, also trapped LBW. The West Indian would also review, with LSG retaining it after the ball was shown to be clipping the leg stump.
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