Lucknow Super Giants 199 for 4 (Rahul 103*, Pandey 38, Unadkat 2-32) beat Mumbai Indians (Suryakumar 37, Brevis 31, Avesh 3-30) by 18 runs
Mumbai opened the bowling with Tilak Varma‘s offbreaks, and then went on to use six different bowlers in the powerplay. Barring one swinging delivery from Unadkat early on that nearly hit the top of Quinton de Kock‘s stumps, the Super Giants openers were unbothered by the bowling changes and were off the blocks quickly. de Kock crunched Unadkat for two fours in that same over, and followed it up with two more in the next against M Ashwin with his trademark slog-sweeps. Rahul, meanwhile, got himself in, trudging to 12 off 15 after a quiet Jasprit Bumrah over before he took on Tymal Mills‘ full and short deliveries for two fours and six in a 16-run over. Fabian Allen, getting his first game this IPL, removed de Kock on his third ball but not before leaking a six to him, and then a first-ball four to Manish Pandey, which gave Super Giants a strong powerplay of 57 for 1.
Where is Mumbai’s A game?
That Mumbai’s bowlers erred with their lengths on a ground with shortish boundaries and didn’t field like a champion side cost them dearly. Pandey and Rahul were already hitting a boundary nearly every over and Mumbai made their task easier. One fumble at deep square-leg at the end of the eighth over made it two fours in a row off Allen. More of them followed, especially at the deep, and soon after Rahul had struck three sixes for a 33-ball half-century, Brevis stopped a Pandey pull in the deep but he tumbled as he looked like he was slapping it back for another player, and ended up lobbing it over the fence for four. The very next ball, Rahul steered a low and wide full-toss towards third man where a misfield gave him four more.