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by IANS |
New Delhi, May 17 (IANS) Lucknow Super Giants have taken a crucial step towards playoff qualification by beating the Mumbai Indians by five runs in a hotly contested 2023 IPL clash on Tuesday evening at the Ekana stadium in Lucknow.
Batting first, Lucknow set a formidable total of 177 runs behind Marcus Stoinis scoring 89 runs (47b, 4x4, 8x6) in a hard-hitting innings.
Mumbai had a great start to the innings with a 90-run opening partnership between Ishan Kishan and Rohit Sharma. However, it was not enough to chase the target down as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals and failed to gain momentum. Tim David gave some hopes but a stellar final over by Mohsin Khan helped Lucknow get the much needed two points. This loss drops Mumbai to fourth in the standings while Lucknow are at third.
Mohsin Khan was tasked with defending 11 runs off the final over against Mumbai, something he did exceedingly well by conceding just five runs in the over.
JioCinema IPL expert RP Singh was extremely impressed with the adaptability Khan showed, "Mohsin Khan did some out of the box things with his bowling. He bowled a length ball, a short good-length ball, after that a yorker, bowling with a better plan. He knew against which batters the yorker would work well."
"Cameron Green is a proper batter and his bat speed is a little different. For him, short or good length worked well from Mohsin Khan. Sometimes, you have to back your skills. Everything cannot be planned. Certain things need to be dealt with your instincts in certain moments."
Marcus Stoinis was awarded Player of the Match for his breathtaking 89-run knock to help Lucknow put up the formidable total that they managed.
JioCinema IPL expert Parthiv Patel praised Stoinis navigation of a tricky pitch, "He batted extremely well. He paced the inning really well, given how the pitch was at the start of the match and how batting on it wasn't easy. He took his time and then he put on a dazzling display. The way the pitch was slow, you needed strength to hit big shots. We saw it from Tim David as well but the way Stoinis batted was great to watch. He played till the end and remained not out."
RP Singh also broke down the moments in the Mumbai Indians' innings that ultimately led to their loss.
"If we talk about their batting, Ishan Kishan's wicket. They shouldn't have lost back-to-back wickets and they should have built a small partnership there. The pressure went up after Ishan Kishan went out. I also think that Nehal Wadhera and Suryakumar Yadav were unable to rotate the strike well. Nehal ended up playing a lot of dot balls and Suryakumar Yadav just had to stand on the runner's end for a while. He probably didn't like it and it probably was one of the reasons behind the loss."
