Ryan Rickelton and Rohit Sharma were in scintillating form to lead the Mumbai Indians to a commanding six-wicket victory against the Lucknow Super Giants in their Tata IPL match at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Monday.
Rickelton blasted an extraordinary 83 from just 32 balls and veteran Rohit crafted 84 from 44 as the home side’s openers made light work of LSG’s 228-5 by powering to 229-4 to complete victory with eight balls to spare.
Both men collected half a dozen sixes and shared 15 sixes against a powerless attack on a perfect batting pitch and fast outfield. Not that the outfield was in much use.
Australian Mitchell Marsh (44 from 25 balls) and Trinidadian Nicholas Pooran gave the visitors a flying start with their record Power Play score of 90-1 and a total of 250 seemed probable with Pooran hitting five of his eight sixes inside the first six overs against spinners Will Jacks (2-0-34-1) and Afghan mystery tweaker Allah Ghazanfar (4-0-50-1).
But Corbin Bosch (2-0-20-2) removed both set batsmen in his first over with Pooran gloving a rapid bouncer to ‘keeper Rickelton in the ninth over and Marsh flat-batting a pull shot to deep midwicket four balls later. The wind had been taken from LSG’s sails.
Mumbai might have restricted the total further had Jasprit Bumrah (0-45) not continued to struggle for rhythm bowling three no-balls, one of which cost his team a wicket.
Marsh and Pooran had put the Super Giants so far ahead of the desired run rate that Aiden Markram (31* from 25 balls) and Himmat Singh (40* from 31) were able to ‘coast’ to a competitive total with just three fours and three sixes between them but, as it transpired, a little more urgency had been required.
Captain Suryakumar Yadav (12), standing in for Hardik Pandya, whipped two fours in seven balls and Naman Dhir provided a flourish with 23* from 12 balls before Jacks finished the game with a six.
The result is almost certain to be no more than a consolation for MI who remain in ninth place with just three wins from 10 games while LSG are similarly placed at the bottom of the log with just two wins and four points from their nine matches. It may have been a battle between the basement-dwellers, but it was a fiercely contested and entertaining spectacle.
MUMBAI INDIANS: Ryan Rickelton (wkt), Naman Dhir, Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Tilak Varma, Will Jacks, Raj Bawa, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, AM Ghazanfar, Raghu Sharma
Impact subs: Rohit Sharma, Mayank Rawat, Robin Minz, Shardul Thakur, Trent Boult
LUCKNOW SUPER GIANTS: Mitchell Marsh, Josh Inglis, Aiden Markram, Rishabh Pant (captain/wkt), Nicholas Pooran, Akshat Raghuvanshi, Himmat Singh, Mohammad Shami, Mohsin Khan, Avesh Khan, Prince Yadav.
Impact subs: Manimaran Siddharth, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Mayank Yadav, Shabhaz Ahmed, Abdul Samad