Mitchell Marsh crushed a sensational 90 in 38 balls to help the Lucknow Super Giants halt the Chennai Super Kings’ drive to the playoffs as they beat them by seven wickets with 20 balls to spare in their Tata IPL clash at Lucknow on Friday night.
Marsh’s knock and LSG’s win – only their second at home in this year’s IPL – came too late for the home team who have already been eliminated from the playoffs, but they proved party-poopers for CSK whose run of five wins in their last six games came to an end.
Chasing Chennai’s total of 187 for five, Marsh and fellow Aussie Josh Inglis blitzed the Chennai attack for 135 in just 70 balls to set up the win. Inglis, who had been the dominant partner in their recent loss to CSK, was the “silent partner” this time around, playing second fiddle to the rampant Marsh with a relatively quiet 36 in 32 balls. Marsh’s rampage reached a crescendo in the fifth over as he struck the luckless Anshul Kamboj for four consecutive sixes in an over that cost 28. Unfortunately for the powerful Aussie, he was denied a deserved century when bowler Mukesh Choudhary got a touch to a return drive from Nicholas Pooran with Marsh well out of his ground.
Kamboj also suffered at the hands of Pooran at the end of the innings with the left-hander lifting him for four consecutive sixes in the 17th over to clinch the win with Kamboj conceding a scary 63 runs in his 2.4 overs.
Earlier it was the turn of LSG seamer Akash Singh to star for his team, claiming an IPL best of 3/26 off his four overs in his first match this year. On a pitch that offered an unusual amount of pace and particularly bounce, Singh got all his wickets digging the ball into the pitch and drawing false shots from key openers Sanju Samson (20) and Ruturaj Gaikwad (13) as well as Urvil Patel.
But Kartik Sharma played superbly for his 71 off 42 balls (6x4s, 5x6s) to enable Chennai to recover. His partnership of 70 in 44 balls with South African Dewald Brevis changed the tempo of the innings with Brevis square cutting his first ball for six in a breezy cameo of 25 in 16 balls. And Shivam Dube (32 off 16) finished the innings on a high note with 23 coming off the final over from Prince Yadav.
But, as it turned out, that flourish wasn’t nearly enough.
LUCKNOW SUPER GIANTS: Mitchell Marsh, Nicholas Pooran, Rishabh Pant (capt, wk), Aiden Markram, Mukul Choudhary, Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed, Mohammed Shami, Mayank Yadav, Akash Singh, Prince Yadav
CHENNAI SUPER KINGS: Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), Sanju Samson (wk), Urvil Patel, Kartik Sharma, Dewald Brevis, Shivam Dube, Prashant Veer, Anshul Kamboj, Spencer Johnson, Noor Ahmad, Mukesh Choudhary