Picture Credit: X/IPL
Mumbai Indians hosted Lucknow Super Giants for the 67th clash of the Indian Premier League on May 17, Friday at the Wankhede Stadium. While Mumbai Indians became the first side to crash out of the IPL 2024, LSG joined them despite a comprehensive win. Lucknow were coming on the back of a 19-run defeat to DC, whereas KKR took down MI in their previous fixture. The game saw home skipper Hardik Pandya winning the toss and inviting the rivals to bat first.
Lucknow got off to a shaky start as they lost their opener Devdutt Padikkal on the third ball of the innings. The batter walked off without scoring a single run. What followed after wasn’t exciting much as Lucknow kept losing wickets within short spans. However, skipper KL Rahul held his nerves and played a crucial knock of 55 runs off 41 deliveries. He was later joined by Nicholas Pooran and contributed crucial 75 runs to the team’s total. Owing to his half-century, the guests were able to put a total of 214 runs for their guests to chase.
In the run chase, Rohit Sharma and Dewald Brevis took the attack to the LSG bowlers in the powerplay stage, but the match was halted due to sudden rain in Mumbai. But after a short delay, the play resumed with the MI opening pair stitching more than 80-run partnership before Dewald Brevis had to return to the pavilion, courtesy a brilliant effort from Naveen-ul-Haq and Krunal Pandya.
Soon after this, wickets kept falling in quick succession for the hosts and the five-time champions were in a state of bother. Eventually, despite a crucial knock from Rohit Sharma, and Naman Dhir, lower down the order, they could not chase the 215-run target and fell short by 18 runs to register their tenth loss of the season and finish at the bottom of the points table.
