Picture : Twitter / IPL
The seventh match of Tata IPL 2022 between Lucknow Super Giants and Chennai Super Kings was high scoring encounter at Brabourne stadium , Mumbai. Lucknow Super Giants cashed in on the in experience of CSK bowlers ( Mukesh Choudhary, Tushar Deshpande, Shivam Dube) and unimaginative captaincy by Ravindra Jadeja to win a thrilling match.
LSG skipper K L Rahul won the toss and elected to field. CSK opener Robin Uthappa began with confidence and blazed away to 27 ball 50 with 8 fours and 1 six. Moeen Ali 35 off 22 balls with four fours and two sixes , Shivam Dube 49 Off 30 five fours and two sixes kept the momentum for a big total . Ambati Rayudu 27 off 20 and Skipper Ravindra Jadeja 17 off 9 . Mahendra Singh Dhoni 16 off 6 remaining unbeaten . CSK powered to impressive 210/ 7 in their 20 overs.
LSG bowlers had hard day . Avesh Khan 2/38 ( 4 overs) , Dushmantha Chameera 0/ 49 ( 4 overs) , Andrew Tye 2/ 42 ( 4 overs) , Krunal Pandya 0/ 35 ( 3 overs) , Ravi Bishnoi 2/ 24 ( 4 overs), Deepak Hooda 0/ 12 ( 1 over)
Chasing a huge total, LSG began slowly to explode later. CSK bowling inexperience and dropped catches hurt their cause . Opener Skipper K L Rahul 40 off 26 balls two fours and three sixes and Quinton De Kock dropped on 30 ( by Moeen Ali) made CSK pay by scoring a fine 61 off 45 balls with 9 fours. The openers put on 99 in 10, 1 overs. The chase was truly on. Powerful West Indian Evin Lewis played to his reputation og hard hitting scoring and unbeaten power packed 23 ball 55 ( 6 fours and 3 Sixes) . Talented Ayush Badoni scored 19 off 9 towards the end remained unbeaten as LSG stunned CSK by their chase reaching 211/ 4 in 19. 3 overs with two balls to spare.
The script changed completely in the blink of an eye as Lewis and Badoni smashed Shivam Dube for 25 runs in the penultimate over to bring the equation down to nine from the last six balls. For sure, handing the ball to Dube to bowl the 19th over will be debated for a while. Ravindra Jadeja looked nervous as skipper and two losses now will put pressure on the defending champions now .
CSK bowling inexperience came to fore and absence of Deepak Chahar is hurting big . Mukesh Choudhary 0/ 39 ( 3 .3 overs), Tushar Deshpande 1/ 40 ( 4 overs) , Dwayne Bravo 1/ 35 ( 4 overs) , Ravindra Jadeja 0/ 21 ( 2 overs) a rare below par show, Moeen Ali 0/14 ( 1 over) Dwaine Pretorius 2/ 31 ( 4 overs) , Shivam Dube 0/25 ( 1 over) the 19th over the sealed CSK’s fate and literally handed over the match to LSG.
