IPL newbies Lucknow Super Giants are on a roll now as they have won their third consecutive game this season after their close defeat in the first match. KL Rahul won the toss and elected to field in the DY Patil Stadium, in Navi Mumbai. This ground is the biggest of all venues in this year’s IPL and most often produces an even-steven game.
Delhi Capitals had David Warner and Anrich Nortje back on their team and they got off to a flying start courtesy of Prithwi Shaw’s 34-ball 61. After his departure, Ravi Bishnoi picked up David Warner and Rovman Powell in quick succession to bring LSG back into the game. Rishabh Pant and Sarfaraz Khan’s healthy partnership helped DC post 149/3. In reply, LSG started dominating Delhi bowling from the start. Quinton De Kock’s exceptional innings of 80 in 52 balls helped LSG to chase down the total. Delhi has lost their last two games now and skipper Rishabh Pant believes their batting unit should have produced 10-15 runs more to make the game more competitive.
“Obviously, when the dew is like that, you can’t complain. But as a batting unit, we were 10-15 runs short. We just wanted to give our 100% till the last ball of the 40th over. Think the powerplay was fine, but the main game changed in the middle overs. The spinners bowled well, but we were 10-15 runs short,” Pant told the host broadcasters in the post-match interview.
Let’s look at the talking points from the LSG vs DC game –
Prithvi Shaw returns to form
Shaw gave DC a great start to their innings. He started hitting fours of off-spinner Krishnappa Gowtham before smashing former DC bowler Avesh Khan for a hat-trick of boundaries. He single-handedly took DC’s score to 67 in the 8th over. His innings of 61 included nine fours and two sixes. He was so prolific that David Warner on the other hand never really got the strike.
Image Credits: Times Of India
Rishabh Pant is not at his fluent best in LSG vs DC
After getting the superb start DC’s batting started collapsing against Ravi Bishnoi. The leg spinner quickly dismissed Warner and Powell. Rishabh Pant also did not look comfortable and got off to a very slow start. He eventually made an unbeaten knock of 39 which came off just over a run a ball.
QDK Anchors LSG Chase
It was not a very big target for LSG to chase but it required quality batting to reach there. Quinton De Kock certainly showed his class once again with a brilliant 52 ball 80. QDK was there at the crease till the 16th over and played a crucial anchor role at a healthy strike rate.
A Forgettable Night For Nortje
Delhi had probably the best pace attack last season with Avesh Khan, Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje on their side. But the management this year decided to keep only Nortje in their squad and released the other two. This is certainly backfiring DC big time as Norje had a very poor night with the ball in his first outing this season. DC squad looked more balanced with the arrival of him and Warner but none of them fired. Nortje is of course coming back from a long injury layoff. He bowled two beamers which cost his team ultimately. Nortje was taken off for that and he bowled only 2.2 overs and gave away 35 runs.
