Super Giants crush Sunrisers by seven wickets
MUMBAI: Prerak Mankad led the way as Lucknow Super Giants beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets for their first win in four games in the IPL 2023 at the Uppal Stadium on Saturday. The result kept LSG in the hunt for a playoff spot, while SRH were left on the cusp of elimination.
Opting to bat, Sunrisers finished with 182/6 thanks to quickfire knocks from Heinrich Klaasen (47 off 29b) and Abdul Samad (37* off 25b) after opener Anmolpreet Singh’s 36 (27b). In reply, LSG seemed to be struggling at one stage but turned things around in style to win with four balls to spare, led by Mankad (64* off 45b), Marcus Stoinis (40 off 25b) and Nicolas Pooran (44* off 13). LSG finished on 185/3.
Lucknow were off to a slow start. Opener Kyle Mayers looked out of sorts and was out for two runs off 14 balls as the visitors crawled to 20/1 off five overs. Quinton de Kock, too, couldn’t kick-on and fell for a 19-ball 29.
It was only when LSG were 75/2, needing 108 to win off 48 balls, that they cut loose and stormed to the finish line.
Mankad had played just two IPL games before this – the first last year and the second in LSG’s previous game against GT, where he didn’t get to face a ball. Batting at No. 3 is a big responsibility and the 29-year-old Saurashtra player took time to settle down, getting to 30 off 26 balls.
But Mankad, along with Stoinis and Pooran, were dominant when it mattered most to get the job done. Mankad hit seven fours and two sixes, while Stoinis and Pooran too showed their might with some clean and calculated hitting.
The defining over of the match was the 16th in the LSG innings when left-arm spinner Abhishek Sharma was smashed for five sixes, three by Stoinis and two by Pooran. The seven-ball over went for 31 runs. It put LSG on their way and the stadium began to empty. While Sharma (1/42 from three overs) was taken to the cleaners, leg-spinner Mayank Markande too was expensive (1/39). Earlier, SRH were in a spot of bother with the bat but managed to find the big hits eventually. In-form opener Abhishek fell cheaply while the rest of SRH’s top-order batters – Anmolpreet Singh, Rahul Tripathi (20 off 13) and skipper Aiden Markram (28 off 20) — couldn’t get a big score. The innings was revived by Heinrich Klaasen and Abdul Samad, who added 58 runs off 40 balls for the sixth wicket.
Klaasen fined
SRH keeper-batter Klaasen was fined 10% of his match fee after he animatedly protested an umpiring decision.
The row was sparked when the third umpire denied a no ball to Abdul Samad facing Avesh Khan in the final over. Initially, the on-field umpire deemed it a no-ball but, LSG reviewed it and the delivery was adjudged fair and Klaasen’s outburst followed. This also enraged the crowd which threw objects at the LSG dugout. The match had to be halted briefly. Hyderabad face GT, RCB and MI in their last three games and can get to a maximum of 14 points, which may not earn them qualification.
Brief scores: SRH 182/6 (Anmolpreet 36, H Klaasen 47, A Samad 37*, K Pandya 2/24). LSG 185/3 in 19.2 overs (Q de Kock 29, P Mankad 64*, M Stoinis 40, N Pooran 44*). LSG won by 7 wkts.