Thakur, Pandya spearhead Super Giants win over Titans

Yash Thakur and Krunal Pandya spearheaded the Lucknow Super Giants bowling effort as they clinched a comfortable 33-run win over the Gujarat Titans in their Tata Indian Premier League clash at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Sunday night.

The Super Giants won the toss and decided to bat first, with a half century from Marcus Stoinis helping them post 163/5 in their 20 overs.

A first ever IPL five wicket haul from Thakur, with him claiming figures of 5/30 in 3.5 overs, then decimated the Titans chase, while Pandya was also instrumental in picking up 3/11 in four overs, as the visitors crashed all out for 130.

The Titans chase got off to a strong start thanks to a 54-run opening stand during the powerplay between Sai Sudharsan, 31 off 23 balls (4x4) and Shubman Gill (19).

But just as they were about to end the first six over well on top, Thakur struck with the last ball of the powerplay, angling a ball back in at Gill, beating him all ends up and crashing into the stumps leaving them on 54/1.

This started a collapse that saw them lose four wickets for seven runs as Ravi Bishnoi first took a stunning reflex one handed catch off his own bowling to send Kane Williamson (1) on his way in the eighth over.

Pandya then got in on the action as he had Sudharsan and BR Sharath (2) caught off top edges in the ninth over and all of a sudden the Titans chase was in tatters with them on 61/4.

Pandya picked up his third in the 13th over as he had Darshan Nalkande (12) caught by Thakur at short fine leg, before a double wicket maiden from Thakur in the 15th, with Vijay Shankar edging to keeper KL Rahul and Rashid Khan caught for a third ball duck, saw the Titans slip to 93/7.

That soon became 102/8 as Umesh Yadav hit Naveen-ul-Haq straight to Quinton de Kock at long-on and the game was effectively over.

Rahul Tewatia, 30 off 25 (2x4, 2x6), dented Thakur’s figures a bit with a few big hits down the back end, but the bowler got his revenge having him caught by Nicholas Pooran at deep backward square leg, before he rounded out his first IPL five-for by having Noor Ahmad (4) caught by De Kock at mid on to seal the match.

In the first innings Stoinis clubbed 58 off 43 balls (4x4, 2x6), while some late striking from the bats of Pooran, 32no off 22 (3x6) and Ayush Badoni, 20 off 11 (3x4), made sure that their bowling department would have something to defend.

Yadav, 2/22, and Nalkande, 2/21, were the pick of the Titans bowlers as they restricted the hosts to a very chaseable score.

The Super Giants innings got off to a tough start as opener De Kock (6) walloped the second ball of the game from Yadav over deep backward square leg for six, but skied the fourth to third man where Ahmad took the catch with the score 6/1.

Yadav struck again in his second over, having Devdutt Padikkal (7) driving at a wide ball and getting an edge to Shankar at wide slip to reduce the Super Kings to 18/2.

This brought Stoinis in to join Rahul, 33 off 31 (3x4) and they set about rebuilding the innings by taking their side to 47/2 at the end of the powerplay and 74/2 by the halfway mark.

Having struggled to get the ball away for most of his innings, Rahul fell going for a big shot, as he toed a slot ball from Nalkande straight to Tewatia at long-on to end a 73-run third wicket partnership, leaving them on 91/3 in the 13th over.

Stoinis was dropped on 43 by Khan off the bowling of Ahmad, which allowed him to bring up his half century in style in the 15th over with a flat six over long-on, followed by another in the same area a few balls later.

But bowler Nalkande got his revenge as Stoinis tried to go for a third six in the over but ended up skying it for keeper Sharath to catch as they slipped to 112/4.

Pooran and Badoni then cashed in during the closing overs with some big shots as they boosted their teams score over the 150-run mark and to a defendable total.

Lucknow Super Giants: Quinton de Kock, KL Rahul (capt, wk), Devdutt Padikkal, Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Krunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi, Yash Thakur, Naveen-ul-Haq, Mayank Yadav

Gujarat Titans: Shubman Gill (capt), Sai Sudharsan, Vijay Shankar, BR Sharath (wk), Azmatullah Omarzai, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Darshan Nalkande, Noor Ahmad, Umesh Yadav, Spencer Johnson