Lucknow Super Giants secured a comfortable five-wicket victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad in their Indian Premier League encounter at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium on Friday.
Skipper K.L. Rahul and left-arm spin all-rounder Krunal Pandya played starring roles in the win, sharing a 55-run partnership off 38 balls for the third wicket.
After a disciplined bowling performance by Lucknow, which saw Krunal take three wickets, Hyderabad were kept to a modest 121/8 on a sluggish black soil pitch. Krunal then joined forces with Rahul to complete an easy chase with four overs to spare.
Chasing 122, Lucknow got off to a solid start, reaching 35/0 in four overs. While Rahul picked up three fours with his drives and flicks, Kyle Mayers had some luck as the bails didn't fall off after being beaten by Fazalhaq Farooqui, and picked up two boundaries.
Farooqui had success in the fifth over, dismissing Mayers after he pulled straight to deep square leg. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was then hit for a huge six by Deepak Hooda down the ground in the last over of the power-play. After four dot balls, Bhuvneshwar took a low one-handed catch to his left to dismiss Hooda, completing a caught-and-bowled dismissal.
After the power-play, which had just two overs of spin, Rahul punched Adil Rashid through deep cover, followed by Krunal driving Aiden Markram sweetly through extra cover. Krunal then launched Rashid over long-on for six, before driving and pulling off T. Natarajan and Umran Malik for boundaries.
Lucknow lost Krunal in the 13th over after he attempted to cut and gave an outside edge to keeper Anmolpreet Singh. Marcus Stoinis hit boundaries off fast bowlers through fine leg and down the ground to bring Lucknow closer to victory, but Rahul fell in the 15th over, trapped lbw while going for a reverse sweep on a leg-break off Rashid.
On the very next ball, Rashid trapped Romario Shepherd lbw with a googly. Nicholas Pooran swept Rashid for four, before finishing off the innings with a six launched over square leg off Natarajan. The win takes Lucknow Super Giants to third place in the IPL standings.
Brief scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 121/8 in 20 overs (Rahul Tripathi 34, Anmolpreet Singh 31; Krunal Pandya 3-18, Amit Mishra 2-23) lost to Lucknow Super Giants 127/5 in 16 overs (KL Rahul 35, Krunal Pandya 34; Adil Rashid 2-23, Fazalhaq Farooqui 1-13) by five wickets