Mumbai Indians vs Lucknow Super Giants: LSG hands sixth consecutive loss to MI

 

KL's classy hundred

Mumbai Indians won the toss to bowl first; KL Rahul and Quinton de Kock opened the innings for Lucknow Super Giants. Fabian Allen gets the first breakthrough for Mumbai Indians in the form of Quinton de Kock's (24) wicket. Manish Pandey then stitched a 47-ball partnership with skipper KL Rahul to pull 72 runs together. Manish Pandey lost his wicket to Murugan Ashwin, whereas Marcus Stoinis and Deepak Hooda got dismissed by Jaydev Unadkat. Captain KL Rahul fetched a swashbuckling inning to remain not out at 103 and give a target of 200 to Mumbai Indians. 

KL Rahul (Player of the Match) said, "Yeah, special day, special hundred, was a good pitch and wanted to make it count. [I] got a few boundaries away early, haven't got the amount of runs that I'd have wanted, haven't got the team to the kind of start that I wanted, wanted to cash in on this good pitch. Day games are a bit different, but dew does play a factor in the night games, it's unpredictable as well. We have defended really well, the bowlers have really come to the game, that's something we can take forward going ahead." He further added, "We're a new franchise, but we have a brilliant team. Enjoy spending time with these guys - the team we have picked in the auction. We were clear we wanted good guys in the set-up - the owners have been supportive, the management has been good, it's a caring franchise, people are being looked after well, that's the kind of franchise we wanted to create. It's still early days in the tournament."

Some severe issues with Mumbai's Batting line-up

Lucknow sent Mumbai Indians on the back foot in quick time by Avesh Khan dismissing Captain Rohit Sharma in the 3rd over. With a target of 200 to chase, Dewald Brevis took charge and started smashing boundaries. The chase started decently, but quick wickets pushed them back. Dewald Brevis and Suryakumar Yadav got going, but they could not capitalise on their inning into a big one. Avesh Khan and Ravi Bishnoi sent the two leading hitters of Mumbai Indians back to the pavilion in no time. Kieron Pollard tried to pull off an unlikely heist but failed. The final over of Dushmantha Chameera saw the fall of three wickets in the form of Jaydev Unadkant, Murugan Ashwin and Kieron Pollard with just 19 runs to chase down. 

Rohit Sharma, on the team's loss, said, "Hard to point out one particular situation, when you are chasing a total we need big partnerships, something we failed to do today. There's no particular reason to it, we try and put team before the individual. They bat quite deep and it is important to hold your key bowlers towards the back end. We always try and keep Bumrah for the back end and it didn't seem to work out. He bowled pretty well but the others just need to pull up their socks a little bit. Every game we play is an opportunity, we try and think what our best playing XI which is best suited for the particular conditions and particular team. We lost 6 games now, we are trying to understand what our right combination is, but it all depends on the opposition that we play."

The ton from KL Rahul set the stage for Lucknow's win in the first inning. LSG bowlers did the rest by not allowing Mumbai Indians to build more extended partnerships. In the end, too much was left for Pollard to pull. Lucknow Super Giants have their next fixture with Royal Challengers Bangalore on 19th April, whereas Mumbai Indians will clash with defending champions Chennai Super Kings on 21st April.