IPL 2023: Stoinis’ unbeaten 89, Mohsin’s final over show keep Lucknow Super Giants in playoff race

Lucknow,: Marcus Stoinis’ unbeaten 89 off 47 balls and Mohsin Khan’s brilliant bowling display in the final over helped Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) register a thrilling 5-run win over Mumbai Indians (MI) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 at the Ekana Stadium, here on Tuesday.

With this win, Lucknow jumped to the third spot in the points table with 15 points and edged closer to sealing their plat-offs berth with one league match to go.

Riding on Marcus Stoinis’ unbeaten 89 off 47 along with skipper Krunal Pandya’s 49 off 42 LSG put up a good total of 177 runs on the board.

In response, MI were off to a flying start. Skipper Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan were scoring runs at a brisk pace on a slow track and set a solid platform with their 92-run opening stand. Then, LSG turned the tables in the middle overs and MI struggled in the second half of their chase.

Tim David tried his best to get them over the line, but could not get the job done as Mohsin successfully defended 10 runs in the final over to hand his side two crucial points.

Chasing 178, Ishan and Rohit provided a strong start to MI, hitting four maximums and three boundaries as MI scored 58/0 in the Power-play.

When Ishan was continuing with his strokeplay, Ravi Bishnoi and Krunal Pandya brilliantly kept MI’s run rate in check and LSG came back in the match in 10-15 overs.

In the 10th over, Rohit picked up Bishnoi’s quicker googly and paddle-scooped it over a short fine with supreme ease for four. The spinner quickly bounced back and removed the MI skipper to break the 90-run opening stand and also completed his 50 IPL wickets.

Soon Ishan brought up his fifty with a boundary and followed that up with another four. But Bishnoi didn’t let him stay longer at the crease and trapped him with a googly. Ishan went for the pull shot. It flew off the edge and went to deep square leg where Naveen-ul-Haq settled under it and took a sharp catch.

After a few silent overs, Yash Thakur cleaned up the in-form Suryakumar Yadav cheaply for seven. Then, David and Nehal Wadhera collected two boundaries and MI were reeling at 125/3 in 15 overs and 53 needed in 30 balls to win.

A couple of overs later, Mohsin piled up further miseries with the wicket of Wadhera on the first ball of the 17th over and the equation read 39 off 18 balls. The next over, Yash overstepped and Tim David got a free hit. After one run coming off the free hit. Thakur removed Vishnu Vinod on a short ball.

David almost turned the tables in the penultimate over, hitting Naveen-ul-haq for two sixes and a four as the equation came down to 11 runs from the final over.

Then, Mohsin held his nerves and defended 11 runs with his well-executed Yorkers, giving just 5 runs off the over as LSG wrapped the win by 5 runs.

Earlier, batting first, LSH had a torrid start as Jason Behrendorff’s double strike in the second over sent the opener Deepak Hooda and Prerak Mankad on two successive deliveries to reduce LSH to 12/2. With Quinton de Kock’s couple of sixes and Krunal Pandya’s boundary, LSG were 35/2 at the end of the Power-play.

Piyush came into the attack on the next over and picked up a wicket on the first ball of his spell. While the MI bowlers dominated the proceedings, Stoinis and Krunal steadied the innings with their 82-run stand.

Krunal was experiencing cramps while running and retired himself in the 16th over, falling one short of his half-century. Then, Stoinis took MI Bowlers to cleaner, taking 54 runs off the last 3 overs to take LSG to 177/3 in 20 overs.