Lucknow Super Giants 160 for 5 (Pant 68*, Markram 45, Dubey 2-18) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 156 for 9 (Klaasen 62, Reddy 56, Shami 2-9) by five wickets
After Pant put SRH in, Shami dealt the early blows by dismissing Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head cheaply. He bowled three overs in the powerplay, and was done with his quota by the end of the ninth over.
Shami, Prince leave SRH in disarray
Bowling against his former team, Shami struck twice in his first seven balls. On the last ball of his opening over, he had Abhishek caught at short third with an offcutter. Then, with the first ball of his next, Shami outfoxed Head with another slower ball; Markram took a diving catch at mid-off on this occasion.
Klaasen, Reddy revive SRH
For the second game in a row, Klaasen and Reddy had to revive SRH’s innings. They started slowly and took SRH to 35 for 4 after ten overs – it was the fourth-lowest total by a team in the IPL at the halfway mark. SRH had hit only one four and one six until then, but after that, Klaasen and Reddy took the attack to the opposition. They plundered 79 runs in the next five overs.
Klaasen, who was dropped on 19 by Mukul Choudhary off M Siddharth, brought up his fifty off 33 balls. Reddy took only 30 to get to his. After 16 overs, SRH were 123 for 4, and would have been eyeing 170 – probably even more.
LSG’s comeback
LSG’s bowlers brought them back into the contest with some excellent death bowling. Reddy holed out to sweeper cover off Siddharth in the 17th over. In the next, Klaasen went for a reverse lap off Avesh but ended up playing it too fine, and Pant dived across to take the catch. That sucked the momentum out of SRH’s innings; they could score only 33 runs in the last four overs while losing five wickets on the way.
Markram leads the chase
Opening the bowling for SRH, Harsh Dubey started with a two-run over. But Markam and Mitchell Marsh picked up three fours off Reddy in the next. Markram also hit the first six of the innings when he pulled a slower ball from Unadkat over wide long-on. Marsh fell to Eshan Malinga for 14 off 12 balls, but Markram kept going. In the last over of the powerplay, he hit two fours and a six off Unadkat to take LSG to 53 for 1.
Pant was struggling at the other end but Markram ensured LSG remained ahead of the asking rate. He eventually fell to Shivang Kumar while trying to clear long-off.
A wobble in the middle
Pant tried to break the shackles with back-to-back fours off Shivang in the 12th over, but Dubey had Ayush Badoni stumped. Nicholas Pooran came out at No. 5 and lasted just four balls. He swept Shivang fine, and set off for a single, without realising that Kishan had stopped the ball, and was thus run out.
Pant takes LSG home
With 43 required from five overs, LSG were still the favourites, but it was far from a walk in the park. Pant then picked up two fours off Unadkat, and Samad did the same against Malinga to make it 19 needed from 18 balls.
Dubey tried to keep LSG in the contest with Samad’s wicket, and Harshal Patel bowled a four-run 19th over. But Pant stayed firm. Unadkat started the final over with a full delivery; Pant drilled it past him for four. Unadkat then bowled a slower one into the pitch, only for Pant to swat it down the ground for another boundary. Two dots later, Pant lofted one over mid-off to seal the game.
Hemant Brar is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
