Krunal Pandya’s three-wicket haul and a 34-run knock helped hosts Lucknow Super Giants beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by five wickets to register their second win of the season in three matches here at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium.
Chasing a modest 122-run target Lucknow Super Giants got off to a quick start with skipper KL Rahul and Kyle Mayers capitalizing on every scoring opportunity coming their way. Afghan pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi brought Sunrisers back in the game dismissing Mayers for 13 from 14 balls as LSG lost their first wicket for 35.
In the next over Bhuvneshwar Kumar dismissed Deepak Hooda caught and bowled for 7 as the hosts lost their second wicket for 45 in six overs.
Krunal Pandya walked into bat with his skipper Rahul and the duo took Lucknow’s total beyond the 50-run mark in 6.2 overs. The Rahul-Krunal duo notched up a 50-run partnership in just 33 balls and LSG reached the 100-run mark in 12.1 overs.
Just when it seemed that Lucknow will comfortably chase down the target Umran Malik broke the 55-run partnership between the two dismissing Krunal Pandya for 34 from 23 balls. With just 8 needed to win Adil Rashid gave a back-to-back blow to hosts Lucknow dismissing KL Rahul leg-before wicket for 35 and in the very ball dismissing Romario Shepherd to a golden duck to leave them struggling at 114/5.
It turned out to be too little too late for Sunrisers Hyderabad as Nicholas Pooran went on to hit the winning run as Lucknow Super Giants registered their second win in three matches while Sunrisers Hyderabad lost their second consecutive match and are still in search of their first win this season.
Earlier in the day opting to bat first Sunrisers Hyderabad did not get the best of the starts as Krunal Pandya dismissed opener Mayank Agarwal for 8.
Anmolpreet Singh along with Rahul Tripathi took SRH’s total beyond the 50-run mark in 7.4 overs. In the very next ball, Krunal struck again dismissing Anmolpreet for 31 from 26 balls as SRH lost their second wicket. The left-arm spinner did not stop there dismissing the SRH captain for a golden duck and picking up his third wicket to leave his team tottering at 50/3 in 8 overs.
In the next over leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi dismissed Harry Brook stumped by Nicholas Pooran to put SRH in further trouble at 55/4. Rahul Tripathi and Washington Sundar then struck a partnership to bring some sanity to the proceedings. The 39-run partnership between the two batters was broken when Yash Thakur dismissed Tripathi for 34 from 41 to a brilliant catch by Amit Mishra as SRH lost half of its side for 94.
