Earlier in the tournament, Gujarat Titans lost a game they should have won at a canter, as Kolkata Knight Riders’ Rinku Singh smashed five straight sixes off the hapless Yash Dayal. In Lucknow on Saturday afternoon, roles were reversed with Lucknow producing an astonishing choke to lose a game that they had controlled for 90 per cent of its duration. When Krunal Pandya smacked Rahul Tewatia for the second six of the innings in the 13th over, Lucknow needed just 39 from 45 balls, with nine wickets in hand. Piece of cake. Walk in the park. Gimmie. Call it what you will. But Lucknow couldn’t find the boundary again, and their meltdown could well have repercussions for the rest of their season.
Marvellous Mohit seals the deal…again
Mohit Sharma’s transformation from net bowler to experienced destroyer has been one of the stories of the IPL season. Lucknow needed 23 from 18 balls with seven wickets in hand when Mohit was thrown the ball for the 18th over. He gave the batters neither width nor pace to work with, and six singles heaped the pressure on the home side. After an outstanding over from Mohammed Shami, it was back to Mohit with Lucknow needing 12 for the win that would have taken them clear at the top of the table. Mohit’s facial expressions suggested nervousness, but his execution of his cross-seam-into-the-pitch bowling plan was just immaculate. KL Rahul and Marcus Stoinis fell attempting the rope-clearing hit, and smart fielding then accounted for two run-outs. A nail-biting finish became a relatively comfortable victory for Gujarat.
Lucknow pitch brings out Rahul’s Jekyll and Hyde
So much chatter, so much vitriol. Rahul moved into his top-10 run-getters list for the season after his innings of 68, but this was another effort that raised as many questions as it provided answers. For a while, despite the slowness of the pitch, Rahul looked in imperious touch. After playing out a maiden off Shami, he struck him for three consecutive fours in his next over. He then greeted Rashid Khan with two emphatic pulls for four when he dropped far too short. At one stage, when he struck the last of his eight fours for the day, Rahul was on 46 from 30 balls. The next 31 deliveries fetched 22 runs. With the middle order doing nothing, it would be harsh to pin the defeat on Rahul alone. But having batted almost through the innings, he had to take the team home.
Hardik finds top gear
It’s hard to be critical of any batter on a pitch where fluent strokeplay was next to impossible. You had to bide your time, and put the bad balls away. It was more old-style cricket, with runs coming mostly from gaps being found rather than the rope being cleared. Hardik Pandya made 66 from 50 balls, but it was very much an innings in two parts. Just 32 runs came from the first 34 balls he faced, and the Gujarat innings never had any momentum. There were an astonishing 10 overs where they made 5 runs or less, and the only two big overs – 14 in the ninth over and 19 from the 18th – came when Hardik savaged Ravi Bishnoi. Hardik and Wriddhiman Saha aside, the other five batters managed one four and 21 runs in 33 balls. In the context of the match, the late acceleration that Hardik delivered – 34 runs off 16 balls – was absolutely priceless.
Brothers share spoils
Once teammates with Mumbai Indians, the Pandya brothers found themselves on opposite sides in Lucknow. Though Hardik ended up with the highest score for his team, it was Krunal, his older brother, who would have been more confident at halfway. He had done his part for Lucknow with a miserly spell that included 13 dot balls and the wickets of Shubman Gill and Saha. With the bat, however, Krunal could never cut loose like Hardik eventually did. And it was Hardik’s calmness in the field that ended up playing a big part in Gujarat stealing a game where match-prediction models had given them less than a two percent chance with 15 overs of Lucknow’s reply gone.
It was a disappointing outing for the frontline leg-spinners on both sides. Bishnoi got a real beating from Hardik, while Rashid often erred in length and was taken for 33 in his spell. Such is the nature of the art that leggies tend to prefer the same conditions that pace bowlers do – the great Shane Warne had an outstanding record at the Gabba in Brisbane – and this treacle-slow pitch didn’t do either Bishnoi or Rashid any favours. Instead of hastening on to the bat, some variation just looped up, begging to be hit.