Lucknow Super Giants skipper KL Rahul smashes unbeaten 103 in his hundredth IPL match to hand Mumbai Indians their sixth defeat in a row
LSG skipper KL Rahul celebrates his ton against Mumbai Indians at the Brabourne Stadium on Saturday. Pic/PTI
The chants of “jitega bhai, jitega, Mumbai Indians jitega” from the DJ and spectators after the penultimate over of the match did not eventuate in victory for Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Brabourne Stadium on Saturday evening. MI ended up losing a thrilling encounter to Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) by 18 runs. The game was all about LSG skipper KL Rahul, whose dominating, unbeaten 103 off just 60 balls sent the Mumbai outfit on the back foot. MI tried hard while chasing LSG’s 199-4, but after six games in IPL-15, the five-time champions are yet to open their win account.
Bumrah hopeful
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MI’s main pacer Jasprit Bumrah (0-24) stated at the post-match virtual press conference: “It’s disappointing. Nobody wants to lose and we are not different. We accept it.” However, he added: “Life is not over, the sun is going to rise again tomorrow. This is a game of cricket, right? Somebody has to win, somebody has to lose.
“Nobody is as disappointed as we are, nobody from the outside can see the hard work that we have put in. But yeah, it’s the way it is…we are not shying away. In the rest of the games, we will again give our best and try to come out the better side.”
Initially, MI were going parallel with their opponents as they scored 57-2 in the Powerplay while Lucknow had 57-1 after the same number of overs. But losing skipper Rohit Sharma (6), Ishan Kishan (13) and Dewald Brevis (13-ball 31) by the seventh over made it a tough task.
Pacer Avesh Khan (3-30) conceded 18 runs off his first two overs, but claimed two crucial wickets of Rohit and Brevis. Even at the half-way mark, MI’s Suryakumar Yadav (37) and Tilak Varma (26) were trying their best and got 86-3 on the board; Lucknow were 94-1 after 10 overs.
Surya, Varma put up a fight
It looked like Suryakumar and Varma, who put on 64 for the fourth wicket, were getting closer to the target, but pacer Jason Holder’s yorker disturbed Varma’s furniture and broke the momentum. Six balls after Varma’s departure, Suryakumar tried to hit leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi (1-34) over deep square-leg, but ended up offering a catch to substitute fielder K Gowtham.
MI needed 43 off the last two overs with Kieron Pollard (25 off 14 balls) and Jaydev Unadkat (14 off six balls) at the crease. But Holder provided some relief to MI by conceding 17 runs. Mumbai needed 26 to win off the last six balls bowled by Sri Lankan pacer Dushmantha Chameera (1-48) but they lost three wickets and with it, the match. Earlier, put in to bat, LSG opener and captain Rahul, who was out for a duck in his previous game against RR, smashed nine fours and five sixes for his hurricane hundred.
Harsh treatment for Tymal
Rahul began the proceedings by dispatching off-spinner Varma to the midwicket fence off the second ball he faced. The fifth over of the innings bowled by left-arm pacer Tymal Mills (0-54) came in handy for Rahul as he hit a couple of fours and ended the over with a six.
He got his hundred with a superb square cut off Mills in the 19th over which cost MI 22 runs. Lucknow could have gone beyond 200, but left-arm pacer Unadkat’s (2-32) disciplined efforts restricted them to four runs off the last six balls.
3
Number of teams who lost their first six IPL matches—Delhi Daredevils in 2013 season, RCB in 2019 and Mumbai Indians in this edition
2
Number of centuries in the ongoing IPL. RR’s Jos Buttler was the first to hit the three-figure mark followed by LSG skipper KL Rahul on Saturday
Brief scores
LSG 199-4 (KL Rahul 103*, M Pandey 38; J Unadkat 2-32) beat MI 181-9 (S Yadav 37; A Khan 3-30) by 18 runs
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