Urvil Patel matched the fastest 50 in IPL history to help the Chennai Super Kings beat the Lucknow Super Giants by five-wickets in a pulsating Tata IPL match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday afternoon.
The 27-year-old right hander equalled Jashasvi Jaiswal’s 13-ball mark and went to make 65 from just 23-balls with two fours and eight sixes as Chennai chased down LSG’s total of 203-8 with four balls to spare.
Australian opener Josh Inglis set the tone in the first innings with a sensational 85 from just 33 deliveries, reverse-ramping two of his six sixes and three of his 10 fours but a middle order collapse threatened to waste the flying start as the innings slumped from 92-1 at the start of the seventh over to 147-6 in the 15th.
But Shabhaz Ahmed appeared to reclaim the advantage with an unbeaten 43 from 25 with a trio of fours and sixes after English pace bowler Jamie Overton (4-0-36-3) had Inglis caught behind and bowled Rishabh Pant (15) in his opening over.
Chennai owed much of their fightback with the ball to Afghan wrist-spinner, Noor Ahmad, who not only dismissed the dangerous Nicholas Pooran for just a single but conceded only 24 runs from his four overs.
Sanju Samson gave the home side their own flying start with 28 from 14 balls but captain and fellow opener, Ruturaj Gaikwad, could only admire the power hitting of Urvil who struck six of his first nine balls over the ropes to reach 42* on the way to a Power Play score of 97-1.
Seven of Urvil’s eight sixes were smitten over the legside but his rampaging innings came to an end when a slap through the off side was well caught at deep extra cover by a tumbling Avesh Khan.
Gaikwad was bowled for 42 from 28 balls and the possibility of a stumble was enhanced when legspinner Digvesh Rathi (4-0-45-2) bowled Dewald Brevis for an overly cautious 10 from 12 balls and Avesh Khan removed Kartik Sharma for an equally trepid run-a-ball 20, both batsmen contributing just a single boundary.
When Urvil was dismissed CSK required just seven runs per over but the caution meant 20 were required from the final two overs. LSG’s attempts to claw their way back into the game were undone by three dropped catches which allowed impact substitute Prashant Veer (17) to scramble to victory.
Aiden Markram was (cruelly) introduced into the attack to bowl the final over with 10 runs required and started with two wides before Shivam Dube struck the next two deliveries over long on for six.
The result moved CSK into a three-way tie for fourth place on the log while LSG remain rooted in last place and are now officially eliminated from play-off contention.
CHENNAI SUPER KINGS: Sanju Samson (wkt), Ruturaj Gaikwad (captain), Urvil Patel, Kartik Sharma, Dewald Brevis, Shivam Dube, Jamie Overton, Akeal Hosein, Anshul Kamboj, Noor Ahmad, Mukesh Choudhary
Impact subs: Gurjapneet Singh, Prashant Veer, Matthew Short, Sarfaraz Khan, Akash Madhwal
LUCKNOW SUPER GIANTS: Mitchell Marsh, Josh Inglis, Nicholas Pooran, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Aiden Markram, Akshat Raghuwanshi, Himmat Singh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Mohammed Shami, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Prince Yadav
Impact subs: Mukul Choudhary, Avesh Khan, Abdul Samad, Manimaran Siddharth, Mayank Yadav