IPL 2023: Krunal Pandya, Amit Mishra Help LSG Crush SRH

Trying different combinations early in an event is a necessary risk for every side as it allows them to plan for the future. The Lucknow Super Giants, on Friday, followed the philosophy with well-calculated changes in their ‘Playing XI’ against Sunrisers Hyderabad, and emerged victorious, winning by five wickets.

Krunal Pandya made the huge gathering of Lucknowites happy with his allround performance, taking three wickets and scoring 34 (23b, 4×4, 1×6) to help LSG take their head-to-head record against SRH to 2-0 in as many as meetings. He, along with skipper KL Rahul, didn’t let SRH bowlers dictate terms and put on a 55-run stand in just 38 balls for the third wicket.

Pandya was eventually caught by Amanpreet off Umran Malik in the 13th over, but by then LSG’s score has reached 100. Even at the end of the power play, LSG were cruising at 2/42 even after losing Mayers (13, 14b, 2×4) and Hooda (7) in quick succession. Mayers was caught at deep square leg by Agarwal off Fazalhaq Farooqi, whereas Bhuvneshwar took a great catch off his own bowling to remove Hooda.

Rahul and Pandya showed a lot of patience on a sticky wicket even as Markram rang in the bowling changes. Unlike in his previous two matches, Rahul started well, striking a boundary off Bhuvaneshwar Kumar on the first ball he faced. Thereafter, there was no stopping the Karnataka batter, who went scored a season-best 35 off 31 balls with the help of four boundaries.

There were some quick wickets in the 15th over when England’s Adil Rashid took two wickets off consecutive deliveries. First, Rahul missed his reverse sweep and was trapped plumb in front of the wicket, and off the next ball, Romario Shepherd fell to a googly that turned big. Thereafter, both Marcus Stoinis (10, 13b, 2×4 and Nicolas Pooran (11, 6b, 1×4, 1×6) took the side home in 16 overs.

Earlier, Rahul used as many as seven bowlers while fielding first after winning the toss. He was clearly looking to test out the options he had at his disposal. In batting, they didn’t draft South African Quinton de Kock into the playing XI and let the in-form Kayle Mayers continue to open the innings with skipper Rahul, and even dropped Purple Cap holder and England pacer Mark Wood, who is reportedly down with flu.

Jaydev Unadkat (0/26) was on target in the early going, not giving SRH openers Anmolpreet Singh and Mayank Agarwal the width they needed to free their arms, whereas experienced Amit Mishra (2/23) kept SRH batters in check in the latter part of the game after fellow spinners Krunal Pandya (3/18) and Ravi Bishnoi (1/16) forced SRH batters to dance to their tune.

Pandya made full use of the slow and gripping surface at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium, mixing the pace of his deliveries to take three wickets, including two wickets off consecutive deliveries in the eighth over of the innings to leave SRH struggling at 63/4 at the half-way mark. He had Agarwal (8) caught by Stoinis, trapped Anmolpreet Singh (31, 26b, 3×4, 1×6) leg before the wicket, before disturbing the off stump of skipper Aiden Markram (0) with a quicker delivery.

The second-highest wicket-taker in IPL history, Mishra looked in his vintage form, foxing both Washington Sundar (16, 28b) and Adil Rashid (4) in quick succession. Sundar tried to clear long-on and Hooda caught him at the boundary line, before the same fielder snapped up another catch at almost the same position, this time ending Rashid’s stay at the wicket with the last ball of his spell. This also remained the biggest over of 13 runs for SRH came with Abdul Samad hitting two sixes off Unadkat.

Now, Lucknow Super Giants meet Punjab Kings in their third home game on April 15.