Stoinis hundred trumps Gaikwad’s ton, helps LSG beat hand CSK by six wickets
CHENNAI: Marcus Stoinis made a bustling unbeaten hundred, a perfect anti-thesis to Ruturaj Gaikwad’s classy century to shepherd Lucknow Super Giants to a stunning sixwicket win over Chennai Super Kings in their IPL match here on Tuesday.
Stoinis (124, 63b, 13x4, 6x6) helped the Super Giants to mount the highest chase – 211 – at the Chepauk in IPL, ending up at 213 for four.
Gaikwad (108, 60b, 12x4, 3x6) and Shivam Dube (66, 27b, 3x4, 7x6) added 104 runs for the fourth-wicket stand to power the Super Kings to a competitive 210 for four.
Thus, LSG also scored a rare back-to-back home and away win over Chennai as they had won the match at Ekana Stadium a few days back.
Stoinis’ innings was in direct contrast to the silken smooth knock of Gaikwad.
The Australian’s 6’1 inch frame is a storehouse of power and he made no effort to hide it too, crunching some fours and sixes, and nothing was more special than his maximum off pacer Mustafizur Rahman, who had earlier consumed LSG skipper KL Rahul cheaply.
Rahman pitched an offcutter slightly fuller on the offstump from over the wicket, but Stoinis produced a physicsdefying straight crunch over the bowlers’ head for a six.
NEW DELHI: Delhi Capitals opener David Warner has no qualms in admitting that the team is left with no option but to win all their remaining matches to stay in the reckoning for a play-off berth in the ongoing IPL.
Having lost five out of their eight matches, DC will be desperate to turn things around when they take on Gujarat Titans here on Wednesday.
“We’re not where we want to be for the team’s sake. We’d like to win a few more games. But we’ve got to win the next remainder to obviously compete in the finals. “So for us, it’s about doing as best as we can. Hopefully, we can play each game like we did against Gujarat,” Warner said during a media interaction.
The seasoned campaigner from Australia added, “We’ve got a little bit of improving to do, both with bat and the ball. If we can minimise the totals, it would be great.
And then if we bat first, try and put a big total on the board and defend it.” Warner further highlighted that DC have a dangerous bowling attack that bowled out GT for 89 in their first leg match.
At the other end, Pooran was on overdrive from ball one, partly because of the linear 55-run stand between Stoinis and a struggling Devdutt Padikkal (13, 19b), whose misery was ended when Pathirana produced a 151 kmph scorcher to uproot the batter’s leg stump.
It mandated that Pooran, who added 70 with Stoinis, did not have the luxury of taking his time to settle in, but he was up to the task and smoked Shardul Thakur for 20 runs in the 16th over including two sixes and a four.
Pooran’s dismissal by pacer Matheesha Pathirana left the task of taking LSG home to Stoinis, who reduced the equation robbing 15 runs off the 19th over bowled by the Lankan.
Stoinis needed to take 17 runs off the last over bowled by Rahman and did the job with three balls to spare, smashing the Bangladesh left-arm quick for 6, 4, 4 (+1NB) and 4.
Earlier, Gaikwad and Dube gave steam to Super Kings innings after a rather subdued Power Play (49/2) and the middle passage.
The CSK should primarily thank Gaikwad, who played an innings which was a connoisseur’s delight, for that total after the early departure of Ajinkya Rahane, who was caught superbly by stumper KL Rahul off Matt Henry.
The batting in this iteration of the IPL has been all about scorching the ball far and wide but Gaikwad took a classic route, timing the ball through the gaps for fours.
In fact, his first fifty contained no fours but still he managed to maintain a strike-rate of above 180 during that phase.
The fifty came off just 28 balls. The most spectacular shot that Gaikwad played on the night was a slice-cut off pacer Mohsin Khan that beat the point fielder for a boundary.
However, his focus was also on constructing useful alliances with his teammates as 45 runs were made with Daryl Mitchell and 52 were made alongside Ravindra Jadeja (17).
However, both Mitchell (11), who was dropped on four, and Jadeja would rue missing out on a chance to chip in with
a far bigger knock.
While Gaikwad was the main contributor in those partnerships, the pressure was slightly lifted off his shoulders once Dube arrived at the crease.
The left-hander played some powerful hits around the field and, not so surprisingly, fetched CSK’s first six of the innings in the 13th over off Stoinis.
Gaikwad soon slammed the first six of his innings in the 45th ball he faced –pulling Stoinis’ half-tracker over mid-wicket.
However, Dube seamlessly slipped into his six-hitting avatar and pacer Yash Thakur bore the brunt as the left-hander smashed him for three successive sixes.
Gaikwad, who reached 99 with a six off Thakur over extra cover, reached his second IPL hundred with a four in the next ball off the same bowler as he made 16 runs in the 18th over.
Gaikwad and Dube brought up 100 of their partnership in just 46 balls.
‘We’ve got a little bit of improving to do, both with bat and ball’