A superlative effort from Marcus Stoinis (124* off 63), flanked by vital cameos at the death from Nicholas Pooran and Deepak Hooda earned LSG a famous away win at Chepauk over the defending champions. The star of the night was Marcus Stoinis, whose unbeaten 124 off 63 balls helped LSG pull off the highest successful chase at Chepauk in T20 cricket. Marcus Stoinis was batting at No. 3 for the first time this season and achieved the target of 211 with three balls and six wickets to spare.
Marcus Stoinis’ century came off 56 balls, just like Ruturaj Gaikwad’s did earlier in the night after the CSK captain lost his seventh toss in eight games. Gaikwad’s unbeaten 108 off 60 balls and Shivam Dube’s 66 off 27 powered the Super Kings to 210 for 4. CSK had looked in control for the majority of the defence. LSG needed 74 from the last five overs but Marcus Stoinis, with help from Nicholas Pooran and Deepak Hooda, silenced the Chennai crowd.
Pitch and Toss
Two teams within whispering distance of each other, so that makes this game so very important. It was very hot in the afternoon, but it is cooling down a bit now. We are very central on this lovely playing surface. To the right, it is about 66m and only one meter bigger on the left side. Down the ground it is 78m. This feels like a wicket of two halves. The half where we are standing have some speckling of grass, but the far end has a nice even covering of grass. It is not going to be a 200 sort of wicket, it is going to be a real dogfight.
There is going to be some dew today, and it will come early. By 8pm, you can see a considerable amount of moisture on the outfield. But the wicket itself, you got to be in the hunt, you got to be in the fight throughout the game.
The KKR game, they got about 137 which was chased down easily. This is going to be a surface like that. It is not going to be easy in the middle phase where you will see a lot of spin here, and that’s where you need to be comfortable batting on this surface. The trick for pacers will be to take pace off, bowl a lot of off cutters and big looping slower ones. This is a critical game, can’t wait for it to get started.
KL Rahul Lucknow Super Giants skipper won the toss and chose to ball first with no changes in the team. Chennai Super Kings team under Ruturaj Gaikwad batting first made one change bringing in Daryll Mitchell for Rachin Ravindra.
A steady start in the Powerplay as Ruturaj Gaikwad plays steady for CSK.
While not being at the non-striker’s end watching KL Rahul and Deepak Hooda take blinders to dismiss Ajinkya Rahane and Daryl Mitchell, the CSK captain played some gorgeous, field-piercing strokes. CSK had another poor opening stand, broken in the first over, but Ruturaj Gaikwad hit six of the seven fours in this phase. It wasn’t as easy to bat on this tacky surface, and CSK didn’t get a single six in this period.
Ruturaj Gaikwad ‘s 50 powers CSK in middle overs.
Mitchell did not take advantage of the reprieve and fell for 11 off 10 but Gaikwad did not miss out. He was on 20 when he was dropped and hit two fours off Henry in the next over. CSK ended the powerplay on 49 for 2, with Gaikwad scoring 37 off 19 balls. While the other CSK batters struggled for timing, he looked sublime and brought up his fifty off 28 balls, with seven fours.
Change of pace was Lucknow pacers’ currency as both Stoinis and Yash Thakur resorted to it. Sixes still didn’t come early in this period but CSK hit at least one four in each over after the PowerPlay leading up to the 12th. Without a six, Gaikwad reached a 28-ball 50 before Mohsin Khan dismissed Jadeja for 16 off 19 off a back-of-length slower ball.
Dube stepped out next, to open up the six-hitting flood gates. He got CSK started with the first of the innings in the 13th over off Stoinis. Gaikwad followed suit by hitting one off the Australian in the 15th over, which earned CSK 16 runs. And then followed the 30-ball carnage…
Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shivam Dube take CSK past 200
Ravindra Jadeja, sent in at No. 4, got out in the 12th over for 16 off 19 balls. By that time, Gaikwad had scored 71 off 39; the other CSK batters 29 off 32.
Gaikwad found an ideal partner in Dube, who also hit the first six of the innings in the 13th over. After that, there was no respite for the LSG bowlers. Given Dube’s reputation of being a spin-hitter, Rahul did not risk bringing on either Bishnoi or Krunal Pandya – both turn the ball in to Dube – for the rest of the innings.
Dube showed he had improved his game against pace as well. He hit Yash for three successive sixes in the 16th over and Mohsin for two sixes and a four in the 19th. Gaikwad, too, was severe on Yash, hitting him for 6, 4, 4 off successive balls – a sequence during which he also brought up his hundred.
LSG’s stuttering start in the Powerplay
Deepak Chahar finally got some swing and struck straightaway, like he’s done in previous seasons. Some gentle lateral swing got Quinton de Kock to play one ball onto his stumps to rock the boat in the opening over. KL Rahul threw caution to the wind like he’s done this season, but a sharp catch from Gaikwad on the edge of the 30-yards circle at cover put LSG in trouble. Stoinis and impact substitute Devdutt Padikkal dragged the team to an underwhelming score at the end of six overs. The only respite was that CSK too got a similar score in that period.
Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran keeps LSG in contest
It was one step forward, two steps back as Stoinis managed to tonk Jadeja and Moeen Ali, but Padikkal got stuck. It wasn’t until the 11h over when Matheesha Pathirana put him out of his misery at a 19-ball 13, bringing Pooran to the middle. In the next four overs, the big-hitting batters sowed the seeds of the stirring turnaround as they went after Shardul Thakur, Tushar Deshpande, Pathirana and Mustafizur Rahman. 49 came off those four overs to keep the flame flickering on, and yet LSG needed 74 to get from the last five.
Devdutt Padikkal came in as Impact Player but struggled with timing. Meanwhile, Stoinis singlehandedly kept LSG in the contest by hitting boundaries at regular intervals. He brought up his fifty off 26 balls, with six fours and two sixes. Still, it was an uphill task. LSG needed 128 from the last ten overs, of which Matheesha Pathirana was to bowl four and Mustafizur three. Pathirana ended Padikkal’s struggle on 13 off 19 balls with a 151.4kph length ball that uprooted leg stump.
Dew in the second half of the game was the only reason LSG had opted to chase. They have otherwise preferred to set the target this season. The first obvious sign of dew having an impact came in the 13th over, when Tushar Deshpande bowled a beamer. Stoinis hit it for four. And when Mustafizur dug a cutter into the pitch, the ball came onto the bat nicely, and Stoinis launched it to the straight boundary off the back foot.
When Shardul Thakur got the 16th over, Stoinis and Pooran knew they had to cash in, with the remaining four shared by Mustafizur and Pathirana. Pooran hit the first three balls for 6, 4, 6 and LSG eventually took 20 runs off Shardul.
Marcus Stoinis silences Chepauk as his century led LSG to resounding win.
Marcus Stoinis took a break briefly when Pooran decided to turn the tables on CSK in the 16th over from Thakur, hitting him for two sixes over deep extra cover and a four behind point. Pathirana took out the West Indian in the 17th – for the fourth time in T20s – to still keep the two points closer to CSK’s grasp but Stoinis didn’t give up.
Marcus Stoinis and Hooda hit a six each off Mustafizur and picked 15 of the over to take the equation down to 32 off 12. Marcus Stoinis welcomed Pathirana in the 19th over with a crunching drive through extra cover for four, followed by two boundaries for Hooda – one off the outside edge of his bat. Pathirana went for 15 in the over, leaving Mustafizur to defend 17 in the last. Marcus Stoinis needed just three legal and one no-ball to wrap that up in style, as he went 6 4 4 4 to cap off a memorable night on the road for his team.
Pooran holed out to long-off against Pathirana when LSG needed 53 from 22 balls. Once again, it was all up to Marcus Stoinis. Marcus Stoinis hit Pathirana for a four before pulling Mustafizur for a six in the 18th over. Two balls later, he brought up his hundred. With 32 required from two overs, Marcus Stoinis and Hooda picked up three boundaries in the first four balls from Pathirana. It left them needing 17 from six balls.
Marcus Stoinis launched the first delivery from Mustafizur over long-on before drilling the next straight back for four. Luck, too, favored him as the next one raced past short third for another boundary. It turned out, Mustafizur had overstepped as well, which reduced the equation to two needed from four balls. Marcus Stoinis then moved across and pulled a short-of-length ball over backward square leg to complete the job. At the toss, Rahul had said that it was not easy to silence Chepauk. By the end of the day, LSG had done that too.
Presentations and Road Ahead.
Ruturaj Gaikwad the loosing skipper said :
“Tough pill to swallow, but good game of cricket. LSG played really well in the back end. We had the game in control till 13-14 overs, but Stoinis played a great innings. (On dew) It played a part, there was a huge amount of dew and it took our spinners out of the game,”
“We could have otherwise controlled the game better and taken it deeper. But these are parts of the game, can’t control it. Jaddu is batting at number 4 since we lost the second wicket within the powerplay,” he stated.
“(On Dube’s entry point) Our thinking is clear that after the powerplay if there is a wicket, Shivam will come out to bat. We can’t force batters to get out after. To be honest, I thought our target wasn’t enough, it was just about par because of the dew we’ve seen during our practice sessions. But credit to the way LSG batted,” he added.
KL Rahul the winning skipper said :
“Very special, especially when it’s a game like that. We were way behind the game when we were batting so it was very special to pull it off. It was a fresh start, both teams started off at 0. Different conditions here. I think they started off really well and put us under pressure,”
“170-180 would’ve been a great total here but they batted really well. Full credit to Stoinis. It was not just power hitting, it was very clever batting. He picked his bowlers and played very well,” he stated.
“(On sending Stoinis at 3) We felt like we needed to be braver and capitalize the powerplay and needed 1 power-hitter in the top-3. I’ve realized that T20 cricket has changed in the past couple of years, 170-180 doesn’t always cut it. You need to go harder in the powerplay and the impact player rule also gives you a bit more depth,” he added.
“(On the change to his own batting) Haven’t played much T20 cricket so happy that it’s coming off. There’s no set plan, apart from the openers, everyone else is ready to go out whenever we feel it’s right. We’re going to keep it flexible. (On his catch earlier) Not bad, not bad… I hope I get the catch of the tournament award (smiles), I was just being modest,” he concluded.
Marcus Stoinis Player of the Match for his brilliant 124 * runs said :
“In these competitions, there are plenty of better opening batters better than me so I’ll leave it to them. It’s not just go go go, there were some bowlers we wanted to target and some bowlers we wanted to be more cautious against. There was a phase where I wasn’t able to hit the boundaries so it was great Pooran could come in and take the pressure off. Lots of ebbs and flows, just tried to keep it in control,”
“You’re planning and structuring, you’re not liking certain bowlers and you’re liking others more. I do think T20 cricket is changing, the scores that have been scored, the impact player role and how teams are taking on the bowlers,” he stated.
“I’ve got a great relationship with the coach (Australian Head coach), me not getting a contract, I knew that long ago. It’s great to let the kids come in and get an opportunity, I’m happy to let them take my spot. But on the playing front, I’d like to play and contribute,” he added.
Historic run-chase at Chepauk as LSG pull off a double over CSK this season! It was all about one man in that run-chase. He’d shown no real signs of being in this kind of form before tonight but when push came to shove, Marcus Stoinis stood tall and got the job done. Chasing 211, a score Shivam Dube said was about 10-15 above par, LSG got off to a poor start as they lost both openers early. It was a brutal struggle for Padikkal who came in next and LSG were firmly behind the asking rate even as Marcus Stoinis struck them cleanly from one end.
Interestingly though, LSG’s innings followed nearly the same trajectory as CSK’s. The acceleration came right when LSG needed it as Stoinis and Pooran teed off. Pathirana got CSK back in the fold with the wicket of Pooran but the CSK bowlers, with plenty of dew out there, simply couldn’t batten the hatches against Stoinis’ assault. They were hurt by a couple of crucial misfields from Deepak Chahar as well and a little cameo from Deepak Hooda only aided the cause. With 17 needed off the last over, Stoinis got it done with 3 deliveries to spare.
That was an absolute humdinger. A rare loss for CSK at fortress Chepauk as LSG have toppled them twice in two games. Marcus Stoinis was the hero of the night with that stunning innings but don’t forget Ruturaj Gaikwad played a breathatking innings and got a century of his own earlier. Lots of great cricket played tonight and it came down to just a few poor deliveries and a couple of misfields from CSK. So that win takes LSG up to 4th place while CSK slip down one place to 5th.
CSK have a four-day gap before hosting the free-spirited SRH on Sunday (April 28). LSG host the table-toppers RR on Saturday (April 27).