Nicholas Pooran‘s blazing innings propelled LSG during the middle phase, Mumbai Indians’ chase was severely dented during the same period as they lost five wickets after a strong opening partnership. On the night, it was Nicholas Pooran who rescued LSG from a familiar situation. With their top order struggling again, his 29-ball 75 brought life to a sluggish innings against an inexperienced MI attack that played without Jasprit Bumrah, Arjun Tendulkar his replacement.
Nicholas Pooran proved his worth for LSG and the daunting and hopeful sign for West Indies in upcoming world event by slamming a thunderous half century that took the game away from Mumbai from the onset. Half-centuries by Rohit Sharma and Naman Dhir went in vain as Lucknow Super Giants secured an 18-run win in their last league game. Despite the win, LSG are out of contention for the playoffs. On the other hand, with four wins this season, Mumbai Indians yet again finished at the bottom of the table.
Pitch and Toss
72 meters down the ground, 66 meters on one side, 61 meters on the other. Fourth time this pitch is being used. Looks like a typical Mumbai pitch. Going to be a lot of runs, but there will also be a bit of help for the spinners. Little cracks are there which means the pitch is a little dry. If spinners are used well, they can put brakes on the batters reckons Matthew Hayden and Sunil Gavaskar in their pitch report.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya won the toss and chose to field . MI team made 3 changes in their squad bringing in Romario Shepherd, Dewald Brevis and Arjun Tendulkar for Mohammad Nabi, Jasprit Bumrah and Tim David. LSG skipper KL Rahul batting first also made few changes into the squad bringing in Matt Henry and Devdutt Padikkal for Krishnappa Gowtham and Quinton De Cock.
MI take early control in the Powerplay
After a fairly slow start and the early departure of Devdutt Padikkal in the first three overs, Marcus Stoinis struck three successive boundaries off Anshul Kamboj to get LSG going in the powerplay. Rahul joined the party in the last over of the phase, by smashing two sixes off Piyush Chawla, but the veteran leggie struck back by dismissing Stoinis off the last ball.
LSG gave Devdutt Padikkal another go this season at the top. But he finished the way he had started, with a duck. Nuwan Thushara got the new ball to sling into Padikkal, and Tendulkar too troubled No. 3 Marcus Stoinis early with the swinging delivery. Piyush Chawla also kept LSG quiet enough to prize out Stoinis and Deepak Hooda in quick succession, and at 69 for 3 in the tenth over, LSG’s innings was moving without direction.
Nicholas Pooran offensive puts MI on the backfoot in the middle overs
KL Rahul may have ended the middle phase by tonking Naman Dhir over long on for a six, but it was a period where the LSG skipper was largely playing the second fiddle, turning over the strike and offering Nicholas Pooran the freedom to go on the offensive. The southpaw Nicholas Pooran was at his destructive best as he took apart Hardik Pandya, Anshul Kamboj and even Dhir, with the last three overs earning the side 66 runs. Nicholas Pooran smashed eight of the 22 balls he faced in this phase for sixes, bringing up his half-century in 19 deliveries.
Nicholas Pooran changed the momentum in the middle overs even masking KL Rahul’s inability to get quick runs. As Rahul moved to only 40 in his first 33 balls, Pooran bashed 22 runs off Anshul Kamboj’s 12th over, and then hit consecutive sixes off Hardik in the 13th.
Nicholas Pooran saved his best for the 14th when Tendulkar’s first two balls went for 12, and after an injury forced the bowler to leave the field, replacement bowler Naman Dhir got pummelled for two sixes. That over went for 29. Not all of Nicholas Pooran’s shots were pretty, but Nicholas Pooran rode his luck.
MI strike back, Badoni provides late flourish to propel LSG to 214 for 6.
Even though Nicholas Pooran and Rahul fell as part of three wickets in three balls, their partnership and the late assault from Ayush Badoni (22 in ten balls) gave LSG 214 for 6. Three wickets in three deliveries put a break on LSG’s progress in the death overs, with Pooran, Arshad Khan and Rahul falling. However, Ayush Badoni’s late flourish in his brief cameo, which included two sixes and a boundary, in the last over off Romario Shepherd allowed LSG to post 214 for 6.
Rohit leads MI’s charge with return to form in the Powerplay
Krunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi trigger collapse as LSG strike back with quick wickets in middle overs
Just when it seemed that Brevis was finding his groove, after having hit Naveen ul Haq for a boundary and a six he mistimed a ball and was caught at wide long off. That started a slide for Mumbai Indians as batters continued to perish in their attempt to find the big hits. Suryakumar Yadav was caught in the deep, Rohit Sharma at short third. Hardik Pandya and Nehal Wadhera also perished without making significant contributions as LSG bowlers firmly turned the contest in their favour.
But MI and Rohit found themselves in a squeeze as the LSG spinners came on. Krunal Pandya and Ravi Bishnoi, occasional boundaries aside, made an impact with tidy spells to slow MI down. The two of them also took sharp outfield catches to help LSG’s cause.
After holding on to a spectacular sliding catch at long-off to dismiss Brevis in the ninth over off Naveen, Krunal got Suryakumar Yadav sweeping to deep third for a three-ball duck in the tenth over. Bishnoi, who took the tough juggling catch for that Suryakumar dismissal, then had Rohit slicing to Mohsin at short third in the 11th.
Hardik couldn’t do much, and Nehal Wadhera then became Bishnoi’s second victim. All told, the six overs Bishnoi and Krunal bowled between eight and 17 gave away 44 runs and netted three wickets.
Naman Dhir’s fifty in vain as MI lose yet again by 18 runs
With Ishan Kishan looking off-color from No. 4, MI’s game looked done after Wadhera’s dismissal in the 15th over. But Dhir gave the home fans some positives for next season with a dazzling unbeaten 28-ball 62 that took MI to 196. His second boundary of the evening, a scoop off a short ball behind the keeper, showed off his intent, and he followed it up with more big shots.
The three sixes in the space of five balls across the 19th and 20th overs gave MI a bit of hope, but another spectacular fielding effort from Krunal on the boundary line stopped a second six to start the final over, and that took the wind out of the chase. Even as Mumbai Indians were behind the eight-ball towards the end, Naman Dhir’s flourish provided some fireworks.
He cracked four boundaries and five sixes to add some respectability to MI” ‘s innings towards the end, but his blazing, unbeaten 62 proved too little to what they were up against. Ishan Kishan and Romario Shepherd could do little to add to his effort.
Presentations and Road Ahead
Hardik Pandya the loosing skipper said :
“Quite difficult. Did not play good quality cricket, eventually costed us the whole season. It’s a professional world. Have to always come out and put our best foot forward. But yes, as a group we could not play quality cricket or smart cricket. Too early to point out what went wrong. The whole season kind of went wrong. We can pass this game as another one (that went wrong),”
KL Rahul the winning skipper said :
“Very disappointing. At the beginning of the season, I really felt we had a strong team and had most bases covered. Couple of injuries – happens to every team. We didn’t play well enough collectively. Today was a really good performance. This is the kind of game we wanted to play more,”
“Unfortunately we didn’t do that. Really happy for them. Franchise has invested a lot of time and energy with them (Indian pacers in LSG). It’s not just two months in the year,” he stated.
“We sent Mayank and Yudhvir to South Africa to train with Morne Morkel. Hard work for them has paid off, but franchise and the team has worked a lot with them. I’m not sure. There’s not much T20 cricket coming up now. It’s been a season where I’ve learnt a lot about my own batting and what I need to do to get back in the team. Maybe middle-order, maybe not,” he added.
“We would’ve ideally wanted him (Pooran) to bat higher, but with how the team’s lined up, we want our senior international players bat in positions where they can absorb pressure. Didn’t want our two overseas batters to bat close together. I’m on my father-in-law’s team now. We’ll both be cheering for Sharma ji ka beta in the World Cup,” he further added.
Nicholas Pooran Player of the Match for his 75 runs said :
“For me personally I felt I had to do my job which was to find a way and finish the game. Coming into the season I knew what my game would be. I have been inconsistent as well, I’d be fair to myself, so wanted to get some experience and make it count,”
“Finishing the innings has been challenging sometimes especially in Lucknow. I have been practicing for a number of years and it’s about putting together all the experience and make it count,” he stated.
“I have batted at 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 but if I had to choose I like the powerplay. I can’t be selfish and choose, the beauty of my batting is I can bat at any position and that’s my strength. I’m just blessed I have a second chance to play this game again,” he added.
“Back then 8 years ago when I had an accident I thought I will enjoy the game, take every chance I get and grateful that teams supported me and backed me and it’s my job to repay them. [thoughts moving now to the World Cup] It’s definitely gonna move there. It’s at home and we are looking forward to it. The last couple of years have been difficult for the men from the Caribbean and we are all looking forward to doing something special for the people back home,” he concluded.
Disappointing end to a disappointing season for Mumbai. They had a great shot of signing off on a high tonight but botched it. While 215 was no target to be scoffed at, we’ve seen such scores being chased down routinely this season. MI certainly had the start to try and get there. Rohit was in full flow tonight and the openers shared an 88-run stand which included an awkward rain interruption. Brevis was the first to fall and that triggered a collapse of sorts.
SKY went for a duck and Rohit, who was looking good for a big score, fell for a well-made 68. They were suddenly strangled for runs as the LSG spinners kept things very tight and that brought more wickets. They completely lost their way through the middle before Naman Dhir came out and played a catchy knock. He finished unbeaten on 62 but didn’t have much support from the other end as MI finished 18 runs short.
Not at all the season Mumbai would’ve hoped for after their bold and hotly debated captaincy shuffle. They finish right at the bottom of the table and it’s the second time that’s happened in three years now. They had a pretty good opportunity of giving their fans something to cheer about tonight but it wasn’t to be. As for LSG, not the ideal campaign for them either. They never really picked up steam and will brood over the ‘what-ifs’ as they miss out on qualification quite narrowly.
On a bittersweet evening for Mumbai Indians (MI) fans at the Wankhede Stadium, a high-octane Rohit Sharma fifty gave them something to be happy about, but they also saw their side slump to their tenth defeat of the season to finish bottom of the points table.
The victors, Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), too, were left with a what-could-have-been feeling as their seventh win of the season took them to the important landmark of 14 points, but a straggling net run-rate of -0.667 left them just outside the top four. In any case, despite scoring 214 batting first, LSG needed an impossible margin of victory to get their NRR where it would have been useful.