Chennai: Marcus Stoinis played a pivotal role with a counter-attacking century, leading Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) to a remarkable 211-run chase against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Tuesday in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024.
LSG faced early setbacks as Deepak Chahar dismissed Quinton de Kock for a duck, followed by Mustafizur Rahman deceiving skipper KL Rahul for just 16 runs. Despite these setbacks, Marcus Stoinis emerged as the anchor for LSG’s innings. He built crucial partnership with Devdutt Padikkal (13) and Nicholas Pooran. However, Matheesha Pathirana’s double strike, dismissing both Padikkal and Pooran, momentarily halted LSG’s momentum.
With 47 runs required off the final three overs, Stoinis unleashed a stunning display of power hitting, smashing the ball to all corners of the ground. His onslaught left Mustafizur Rahman with 17 runs to defend in the last over. Stoinis hit three consecutive boundaries to clinch victory for LSG
Stoinis scored a brilliant unbeaten century, making 124 runs off 63 balls, while Nicholas Pooran contributed with a quick 34 runs off just 15 balls, and Deepak Hooda added 17 runs off 6 balls to seal the chase for LSG.
Earlier in the first innings, Ruturaj Gaikwad’s unbeaten century, coupled with Shivam Dube’s explosive half-century, propelled CSK to a total of 210/4 against Lucknow Super Giants. Gaikwad played an unbeaten innings of 108 runs while Dube scored 66. The crowd had a chance to see Dhoni walk out and smash his only ball to the boundary in the last delivery of final over.
Earlier, LSG skipper won the toss and elected to bowl first against CSK. After winning the toss LSG skipper said, “We’ll bowl first. There is a bit of dew, we have trained here and there is a bit of dew that will play an impact. Wicket is a bit slow and hopefully we can put their batters under pressure. We played well in all three facets, but we have left the result back in Lucknow. We know have challenging Chennai is, everyone will be cheering for them. Same team for us. No need to quieten the crowd, they always encourage good cricket.”
CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad at the toss said, “Nothing different, but the coin toss is something I need to work on. There will be some dew later on, but you never know how the wicket will surprise you. You just need to go out there and express yourself, if the ball in in your area they just attack it. Hoping to set the foundation upfront. One change for us – Daryl comes in for Rachin. Pretty good to have three home games, but for that we will need to win some tosses. However, it doesn’t matter if you are batting first or bowling first.”
Lucknow Super Giants (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock, KL Rahul(w/c), Marcus Stoinis, Deepak Hooda, Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Krunal Pandya, Matt Henry, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohsin Khan, Yash Thakur
Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Ajinkya Rahane, Ruturaj Gaikwad(c), Daryl Mitchell, Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni(w), Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Mustafizur Rahman, Matheesha Pathirana
