Delhi Capitals vs Lucknow Super Giants: Lucknow beat Delhi by six runs
A thrilling game of cricket ended with Lucknow Super Giants bagging two points by defeating Delhi Capitals by six runs. After putting a massive total on board, they managed to get control over the Capitals' batters in continuous successions.
Marcus Stoinis big game for Lucknow
Rahul-Hooda anchoring innings for LSG
KL Rahul, on winning the toss, opted to bat first. Quinton de Kock and KL Rahul opened the innings. Both the openers were playing in attacking mode right from the beginning. Shardul Thakur got the first break for Delhi Capitals in the powerplay by striking Quinton de Kock. Deepak Hooda came in to bat at number 3. Hooda and KL Rahul played an unbelievable and attacking partnership. The duo stitched 95 runs off 61 balls in partnership, with Deepak Hooda reaching 52 in 34 balls. The partnership was broken by Shardul Thakur yet again. Also, Skipper KL Rahul (77) was dismissed by Shardul as all other bowlers failed to take wickets or control the runs from flowing. Marcus Stoinis and Krunal Pandya sailed the total to 195, posting a mammoth target of 196 for the Capitals.
Mohsin Khan's game-changing spell
In response to the enormous total, Prithvi Shaw and David Warner opened the innings for Delhi Capitals. However, Dushmantha Chameera and Mohsin Khan dismissed both the openers in the first over itself. Skipper Rishabh Pant and Mitchell Marsh built a great counterattack partnership of 60 runs in 25 balls; however, they failed to capitalise and convert to a big inning as Krishnappa Gowtham dismissed Mitchell Marsh. The weak signals showed he was not out, but DC didn't take review and lost a crucial set batter. Lalit Yadav got bowled by Ravi Bishnoi for a well bowled Googly. Pant continued to strike with Rovman Powell on the other end, but Mohsin Khan took the skipper while contributing 44 off 30 balls. Axar Patel contributed an attacking knock with his bat by scoring 42 in 24 balls. Kuldeep Yadav too scored 16 runs in 8 balls. Both of them remained not out but failed to seal the win for the Capitals.
Rishabh Pant, on losing, said, "I think it's hard (loss), but we have to start winning close matches. We came close few games, but we are losing it. Really happy that the bowlers pulled it back. But on these kinds of wickets, when the bowlers put up a helping hand, we got to perform as a batting unit as well. It was really nice to see the way Mitch (Marsh) was batting. But as a batting unit we need to start converting those 30s, 40s into a big score. Hopefully, we can turn it around. As a team there are a lot of positives and there is not much to discuss but we would like to improve ourselves in the next game."