Mumbai pacer Shardul picks 4-34 as Lucknow Super Giants restrict Sunrisers Hyderabad’s explosive batters to 190-9; Pooran and Marsh score quickfire half-centuries for visitors to win by five wickets and register their first victory of IPL-18
LSG’s Shardul Thakur celebrates the dismissal of SRH’s in-form batter Ishan Kishan in Hyderabad yesterday. Pic/PTI
Lucknow Super Giants’ seasoned pacer Shardul Thakur took an impressive 4-34 to restrict the high-flying Sunrisers Hyderabad batters to a modest 190-9 in an IPL match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Thursday. The LSG batters then comfortably chased down the target with five wickets and 23 balls to spare.
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Nicholas Pooran top-scored for LSG with a blistering 26-ball 70. The West Indian’s innings was laced with six fours and as many sixes. He was well supported by opener Mitchell Marsh (31-ball 52).
Man with a plan
Earlier, SRH, who had previously terrorised rivals with their big-hitting skills, found themselves on the backfoot for a change, as Thakur held centrestage with some inspiring bowling. Speaking at the mid-innings break, Thakur said LSG’s plans were simple: To come hard at SRH batters. “They are coming hard at the bowlers so why not go hard at them? The plan was to collectively go hard at them. We thought if we get early wickets, we’d do well because they have been going heavy from the start on flat pitches,” Thakur said.
LSG’s Nicholas Pooran during his 26-ball 70 yesterday. Pic/AFP
Earlier skipper Rishabh Pant took a gamble by inviting SRH to bat, but it paid off. SRH were rocked by early inroads as the famed trio of Abhishek Sharma (6), Ishan Kishan (0) and Travis Head (47; 28b, 5x4, 3x6) were back in the pavilion by the eighth over. Thakur, who was signed as a replacement for Mohsin Khan, tasted double success in the third over itself. The Mumbai pacer removed Abhishek Sharma and last-match centurion Ishan Kishan off the first two deliveries of his second over. Sharma swung his bat only to find Nicholas Pooran at deep square leg while Kishan was out to a leg-side catch. Just like in their last match, Thakur picked two early wickets for LSG.
LSG bowlers in command
For the huge crowd, it was not the usual flamboyant SRH batting, but instead the LSG bowlers who stole the show with a planned and disciplined attack. They bowled the right length and as a result, big-hitter Travis Head struggled too. The Australian enjoyed being put down twice, with leg spinner Ravi Bishnoi being the unlucky bowler. First, Pooran dropped a skier at long on and then Bishnoi failed to latch on to a difficult return chance. The tall Prince Yadav, 23, dismissed Head, clean bowled, in his first over. Yadav also had a hand in SRH’s fourth wicket. A hard drive from Nitish Kumar Reddy saw the ball deflect off Yadav’s hands and dislodge the bails at the non-striker’s end with Heinrich Klaasen (26) out of the crease. Yadav, who troubled the batters with yorker-length deliveries, returned impressive figures of 4-0-29-1.
SRH, who reached 100 in the seventh over against RR recently, were choked by LSG’s bowlers. And when Bishnoi cleaned up Reddy (32), there was pin-drop silence. Aniket Reddy gave the hosts some late hope with a 13-ball 36, including five sixes, but after he holed out in the deep, SRH failed to reach the 200-mark.
Brief scores
SRH 190-9 in 20 overs (T Head 47, A Verma 36, N Reddy 32; S Thakur 4-34) lost to LSG 193-5 in 16.1 overs (N Pooran 70, M Marsh 52; P Cummins 2-29) by five wickets
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