Krunal Pandya flashed an all-round show while his skipper KL Rahul stepped up with the bat as Lucknow Super Giants cruised to a comprehensive five-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in an Indian Premier League match on Friday.
Krunal first produced a brilliant spell of 3/18 with the ball to restrict SRH to a paltry 121 for 8, before contributing a batting 34 off 23 deliveries to help LSG chase down the target with 24 balls to spare in a low-scoring match. .
He stitched a 55-run stand with Rahul (35) for the third wicket to put the game out of SRH’s reach. By the time Krunal was out in the 13th over, LSG needed just 22 runs to win. The home team eventually reached 127 for 5 in 16 overs.
KL Rahul five-wicket win over SRH
Rahul hit four fours during his 31-ball knock, while Krunal’s innings was peppered with four boundaries and one maximum.
Rahul and Romario Shepherd (0) were out on consecutive deliveries bowled by Adil Rashid (2/23) in the 15th over, but that only delayed the inevitable. Experienced pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar conceded 13 runs in LSG’s first over, gave five wides and Rahul hit four.
Rahul found boundaries against Washington Sundar and Aiden Makram but lost his opening partner Kyle Mayers (13) in the fourth over bowling Fazalhaq Farooqi, who came in as SRH’s impact player in place of Rahul Tripathi.
Bhuvneshwar made amends for his expensive lead by scalping the wicket of Deepak Hooda (7), caught and bowled, in the last delivery of the over to reduce LSG to 45 for 2.
Rahul and Krunal denied SRH any success in 6.2 overs as LSG edged closer to the target. LSG were always well ahead of the required odds and needed just 40 runs from the last 10 overs with eight wickets in hand.
Earlier, left-arm spinner Krunal took the wickets of three top-order batsmen in a brilliant spell.
Krunal scalped the wickets of Mayank Agarwal (8), Anmolpreet Singh (31) and skipper Makram (0) the latter two dismissals off consecutive balls in the eighth over to reduce SRH, who elected to bat first, to 50 for 3.
Markram was playing his first match of the season and also his first as captain of SRH. The first ball he faced he went for a drive but it spun and disturbed his off stump.
Ravi Bishnoi then removed Harry Brook, stumped by Nicholas Pooran, for 3 as SRH were in shambles at 55 for 4 in nine overs. SRH could not recover from there.
Seasoned leg-spinner Amit Mishra produced a fine spell of 2/23 later in the innings to restrict SRH to a paltry total. Mishra was replaced by ‘Impact Player’ Ayush Badoni with just one left in the innings.
LSG skipper Rahul’s ploy to introduce spin in the third over in the form of Krunal on a difficult wicket with a variable bounce paid off.
Agarwal went for a drive but hit straight to Marcus Stoinis in the third over to give LSG their first wicket. Five overs later, he trapped a well-set batsman Anmolpreet for LBW before bowling Makram the next ball to spoil the South African’s first match as SRH captain. From 43 for 1 after the overs, SRH were 63 for 4 at half-time.
Rahul Tripathi (34) played the only game in the second half of the innings as he stitched 39 runs, the highest partnership for SRH, with Washington Sundar (16) before falling in the 18th over off the bowling of Yash. Thakur. Abdul Samad hit two sixes in the final over which was bowled by Jaydev Unadkat to get SRH past 120.
