Ruturaj Gaikwad’s elegant century was perfectly counterbalanced by Marcus Stoinis’s brash undefeated century, which helped Lucknow Super Giants defeat Chennai Super Kings by an impressive six wickets.
Lucknow Super Giants defeated the Chennai Super Kings by six wickets on Tuesday because to a brilliant century from Marcus Stoinis, who was the ideal counterpoint to Ruturaj Gaikwad’s elegant century. The Super Giants managed to mount the highest chase in IPL history, 211 at the Chepauk, thanks to the contributions of Stoinis (124, 63b, 13×4, 6×6), who finished at 213 for 4. Super Kings reached a competitive 210 for four thanks to 104 runs contributed during the fourth-wicket stand by Gaikwad (108, 60b, 12×4, 3×6) and Shivam Dube (66, 27b, 3×4, 7×6). LSG, who had defeated Chennai at Ekana Stadium a few days prior, thereby achieved a unique victory over the team both at home and away.
The flawlessly polished knock of Gaikwad was a stark contrast to Stoinis’s innings.
With his peak off pacer Mustafizur Rahman, who had previously devoured LSG skipper KL Rahul cheaply, the Australian made no attempt to disguise the powerhouse that is his 6’1″ physique. He crunched some fours and sixes.
Over the wicket, Rahman delivered an off-cutter that was a tad bit fuller, but Stoinis struck a six with a physics-defying straight crunch over the bowlers’ heads.
Pooran, on the other hand, was in overdrive from ball one, in part because to the straight 55-run stand between a battling Stoinis and Devdutt Padikkal (13, 19b), whose ordeal was stopped when Pathirana struck a blistering 151 km/h to uproot the batter’s leg stump.
Pooran, who scored 70 runs alongside Stoinis, was forced to bat first and did not have time to adjust. However, he proved his mettle by hitting Shardul Thakur for 20 runs in the 16th over, including two sixes and a four.
Following Pooran’s wicket by bowler Matheesha Pathirana, Stoinis took over the responsibility of leading LSG home, removing 15 runs from the 19th over bowled by the Lankan.
Stoinis needed 17 runs from Rahman’s final over and finished with three balls remaining, hammering the Bangladesh left-arm fast for 6, 4, 4 (1NB), and 4.
Earlier, Gaikwad and Dube injected life into Super Kings’ innings following a lethargic Power Play (49/2) and middle passage.
After the early loss of Ajinkya Rahane, who was wonderfully caught by stumper KL Rahul off Matt Henry, the CSK should largely credit Gaikwad, who played an innings that would delight any connoisseur, for that total.
The batting in this edition of the IPL has been all about scorching the ball far and wide, but Gaikwad went the traditional method, timing the ball through the gaps for fours.
In reality, his first fifty had no fours, yet he still maintained a strike rate of more than 180 over that period.
The fifty came from only 28 balls. The most impressive shot Gaikwad made on the night was a slice-cut off bowler Mohsin Khan that beat the point fielder for a boundary.
However, he also focused on forming valuable relationships with his teammates, scoring 45 runs with Daryl Mitchell and 52 with Ravindra Jadeja (17).
However, Mitchell (11), who was dropped on four, and Jadeja would regret missing out on a chance to contribute with a far greater blow.
While Gaikwad was the primary contributor in both partnerships, Dube’s arrival at the crease relieved some of the burden.
The left-hander smashed several tremendous shots over the field and, unsurprisingly, scored CSK’s first six runs in the 13th over against Stoinis.
Gaikwad hit the first six runs of his innings with the 45th ball he faced, pulling Stoinis’ half-tracker over mid-wicket.
However, Dube smoothly slid into his six-hitting avatar, and bowler Yash Thakur suffered the brunt of the damage as the left-hander blasted him for three consecutive sixes.
Gaikwad, who had reached 99 with a six off Thakur over extra cover, reached his second IPL century with a four off the same bowler in the 18th over, scoring 16 runs.
Gaikwad and Dube scored 100 runs in 46 balls.
