Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) began IPL 2023 in emphatic fashion, thumping Delhi Capitals (DC) by 50 runs at the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Saturday.
Lucknow Super Giants were playing their first-ever match in Lucknow, and KL Rahul and Co sure did impress the home crowd.
LSG were put into bat by DC, and Kyle Mayers made use of the opportunity as he slammed 73 off 38, reaching his half-century in just 28 deliveries.
In DC’s reply, none of the batters barring skipper David Warner (56) and Rilee Rossouw (30) got going as they faltered to 143/9 from 20 overs, courtesy a fine bowling spell from Mark Wood (5/14).
DC, who are currently missing the injured Rishabh Pant, will now head back to the drawing board to rectify their mistakes aHhead of their next game against defending champions GT on 4 April.
Let’s now take a look a five top moments from the game:
Mark Wood returns in style!
England pacer Mark Wood had missed IPL 2022 with Lucknow Super Giants due to an elbow injury, but this time around, it just took Wood one game to put up a performance to remember, well, for LSG fans at least.
On Saturday against DC, Wood finished with match-winning figures of 5/14 in his quota of four overs.
Wood struck twice in the fifth over of DC’s chase, cleaning up Prithvi Shaw and Mitchell Marsh off two consecutive deliveries, and returned to inflict damage on DC again, removing Sarfaraz Khan.
Ahead of the season, one of LSG’s concerns were death bowling, but Wood returned to bowl the final over of the chase. The match was decided by then, but Wood was in no mood to give up, seeing off Axar Patel and Chetan Sakariya in the same over. While Axar was caught at deep square leg, Sakariya miscued his pull towards Krunal Pandya at midwicket.
If Saturday’s performance was to go by, there’s still a lot to come from Wood this season.
Kyle Mayers announces his arrival
He is 30 years old already, but it was only on Saturday when West Indian Kyle Mayers made his IPL debut, be it for any team.
Mayers was acquired by LSG for his base price of Rs 50 lakh at the IPL auction last December, and he lived up to his price tag with a fine half century.
He opened with LSG skipper KL Rahul, and while Rahul was dismissed early on in the innings, that did not dampen Mayers’ momentum as he went onto notch up his maiden IPL fifty in just 28 balls.
He was looking promising even after the fifty, hitting sixes at regular intervals, but was eventually cleaned up by Axar Patel in the 12th over.
Mayers was also involved in a 79-run stand for the second wicket with Deepak Hooda.
Another forgettable outing for KL Rahul
KL Rahul has been going through tough times with the Indian cricket team very recently. He had a miserable Test series against Australia, but had found momentum with an unbeaten 75 against the same opponents in an ODI, before being dismissed for 9 and 32 in the second and third ODIs.
It’s still very early days in the IPL, but going ahead to the next six-seven weeks, Rahul’s performance is going to be one of the major talking points of the season.
On Saturday, all Rahul could manage were eight runs. After collecting a couple of runs in the first two overs, Rahul cleared long-on boundary for a six in the fourth over, but just a couple of balls later, Rahul was caught by Axar in the deep off Sakariya’s bowling.
Rahul has previously scored runs in excess of 500 in most of the previous seasons, and who knows, maybe it was just a minor blip for him on Saturday.
Nicholas Pooran’s blazing knock
Nicholas Pooran was coming into the IPL with a price tag of Rs 10.75 after being bought by LSG in December, and on Saturday, he showed glimpses of what he could offer, amassing 36 off just 21 deliveries.
It was a short but sweet stay from Pooran at the crease, as he amassed two fours and three sixes to play a huge part in taking LSG to 193.
Pooran was involved in a 48-run stand with Krunal Pandya for the fifth wicket, before being dismissed by Khaleel Ahmed in the 19th over.
Warner-Rossouw stand revives DC
When Rilee Rossouw came into bat, DC were in a spot of bother at 48/3 in the seventh over, but Rossouw, along with DC skipper David Warner, gave the Capitals a glimmer of hope with a 38-run stand for the fourth wicket.
DC had lost Prithvi Shaw, Mitchell Marsh and Sarfaraz Khan inside the first seven overs, and in came Rossouw in at number five.
He even punished Ravi Bishnoi for 17 runs in the 10th over, hitting him for two fours and a six, but fell to the same bowler at the end of the 12th over, after the ball deflected on the bat en route to the hands of Kyle Mayers.
The dismissal was given Not Out by the on-field umpire, seemingly for an LBW, but LSG anyway opted for the review.
As it turned out, the footage showed the ball hitting the back of Rossouw’s bat, en route to Mayers running over from short fine leg.
Rossouw, though, had walked off even before the official decision was to be made.
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