LSG finally fell Titans
Lucknow Super Giants claimed their third win in a row, and first over Gujarat Titans in five attempts, with a fighting defence of 163 in Lucknow. Marcus Stoinis’ first half-century of the season provided the ballast after the home side had chosen to bat and, although Titans started well in their run chase, Yash Thakur claimed a maiden five-for to help demolish the innings.
The LSG batting effort was rarely fluent, captain KL Rahul and Stoinis opting for accumulation after Umesh Yadav had struck twice with the new ball. Both fell when looking to up the ante and it needed flashes of power from Nicholas Pooran plus a cameo from Ayush Badoni to get them up to a respectable score.
In their favour was the fact LSG had never been beaten defending a target of 160-plus. Titans looked set to threaten that record after racing to 54 without loss inside the powerplay, only for a stunning collapse of 8 for 48 to make it 13 from 13 for LSG. After Yash skidded one through Shubman Gill, Ravi Bishnoi’s spectacular caught-and-bowled dismissal of Kane Williamson provided the spark, while Krunal Pandya raced through his four-over allocation for figures of 3 for 11 as Titans imploded.
That they managed such a comfortable defence was even more remarkable given LSG lost the services of their new pace sensation, Mayank Yadav, after just a single over due to a side strain – the one sour note for Rahul’s team as they moved to six points and third in the table.