TATA IPL 2024: Rahul and de Kock led Lucknow to an eight-wicket victory over Chennai
Lucknow Super Giants clinched victory over Chennai Super Kings by eight wickets in a thrilling match at Ekana Cricket Stadium, marking the highest successful run chase at the venue. K.L. Rahul and Quinton de Kock formed a formidable opening partnership, contributing 154 runs. Despite a modest target of 177, Lucknow's openers started strong, accumulating 32 runs within the first four overs. Deepak Chahar's initial over yielded only three runs, but Tushar Deshpande faced a challenging second over, conceding nine runs as Lucknow Super Giants swiftly reached 32 runs within four overs.
With the talk around Rahul’s strike rate in T20s especially in IPL, the LSG skipper raced to 34 off 20 with some classy strokes and led his team to 54 for no loss in the Power-play, along with de Kock, for their joint second-best Power-play score of the season. LSG and Rahul would have gained loads of confidence with plenty of strokes that he scored playing the aggressive role in the chase. He has belted out his mighty pulls, classy drives, and perfectly timed pick-up shots to set up the chase nicely. Rahul was nicely placed on 46 off 27 and de Kock scored 34 off 27 balls after the end of nine overs.
Rahul was dealing with boundaries. He first played a cut shot past Jadeja to reach his fifty, off 31 balls. It was his 35th half-century in the IPL. Next ball, he sliced it just wide of point for another four, and that brought up LSG's 100. As many as 14 runs came off Jadeja's third over and CSK’s eleventh. LSG were 103 after 11 and need 74 off 54.
Until this match, CSK were the stranglers of the middle overs in this IPL, something that they showed in their last game against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede. Their economy rate of 7.03 in the middle overs before this match was well below the next best -- Delhi Capitals' 8.04, and CSK had also taken 21 wickets in this phase, only behind DC's 22. Pathirana had done a lot of work in the middle overs to make that happen but on Friday, like the rest of the bowling attack, the Sri Lankan was not as effective.
Rahul and de Kock cruised along for nearly 15 overs and CSK finally got a breakthrough as De Kock edged an off-cutter from Mustafizur Rahman behind to MS Dhoni for 54 off 43 and LSG were 134 for 1 after 15 overs. LSG needed 43 from 30 and Nicholas Pooran joined his captain and straightaway sent his second ball for a maximum off Pathirana’s delivery. In the very next over he smoked Rahman for back-to-back boundaries and then Rahul ended the over with the third boundary of the over as Rahman gave away 15 runs in his last over of the spell. He ended his spell with figures of 1-43.
With just 16 runs needed from 18 deliveries, Jadeja, stationed at backward point, stunned the crowd with a remarkable single-handed catch, diving to his left to dismiss Rahul for 82 off Pathirana's delivery. Marcus Stoinis entered the fray at No. 4, and thanks to his contribution of 15 runs in Tushar Deshpande's final over, Lucknow Super Giants secured victory by eight wickets with six deliveries to spare.
