De Kock stars as LSG climb to second spot
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) trotted to a hat-trick of wins with a six-wicket win over Delhi Capitals (DC) in their IPL game at the DY Patil Sports Academy in Mumbai on Thursday . Chasing a modest 150, Quinton de Kock’s 54-ball 80 set the foundation for their chase with them crossing the line in the final over on Thursday (April 7). Prithvi Shaw had scored 61 off 34, but the others put on 88 off 86 collectively, summing up DC’s night, who slipped to their second loss in three games.
The openers started slowly with only two boundaries coming in the first four overs. Until Anrich Nortje came into the attack. Nortje, who was making a comeback from injury, had a disastrous night in his first-ever IPL outing in India. DC may have missed a trick by not getting him to open the bowling alongside Mustafizur Rahman upfront, going with Lalit Yadav instead. When Nortje was brought in in the fifth over, he was dismantled by Quinton de Kock who took him for three fours and a six in the over. He returned to bowl the 14th and bowled a beamer first-up. He then bowled another in the 16th, and was forced out of the attack after having had bowled just 2.2 overs, taken for 35 runs as LSG gained momentum.
DC couldn’t break the stand and strike in the power play once again with just one wicket in three matches in the phase. The spinners then did well to keep the scoring under check, but de Kock kept chipping in with the odd boundaries despite KL Rahul falling for a run-a-ball 24. Evin Lewis fell to Lalit soon after, but de Kock was keeping the scoreboard ticking. Kuldeep returned to end his knock for 80 off 52, comprising nine fours and two sixes.
LSG were on top from the onset due to the lack of scoreboard pressure, but a superb couple of overs from Mustafizur (17th) and Shardul Thakur (18th) brought the game alive conceding just nine runs. Deepak Hooda fell to Thakur in the final over, as LSG took the game closer than they would’ve liked with 5 runs off 4 balls. But Ayush Badoni drove to level the scores and wrapped up the game with a six.
Chief scores:
Lucknow Super Giants: 155/4 in 19.4 overs (Quinton de Kock 80; Kuldeep Yadav 2-31)
Delhi Capitals: 149/3 in 20 overs (Prithvi Shaw 61, Rishabh Pant 39*, Sarfaraz Khan 36*; Ravi Bishnoi 2/22) (Agencies)