Our season opener for TATA Indian Premier League 2023 started with a difficult loss as Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) won by 50 runs at the Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow.
Fans in Lucknow too, welcomed the return of India’s festival with a good turn-up. RP17’s vibe was felt in our dugout wholeheartedly.
Our skipper David Warner won the toss and elected to bowl first. The pitch at Lucknow was with contrasting halves of grassy and bald patches.
Stable Start:
We started with economic overs from Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar and Chetan Sakariya to the opening pair of KL Rahul and Kyle Mayers.
Sakariya ended Rahul’s rusty knock as controlled bowling by our boys toned down the Super Giants’ powerplay at 30-1
Mayers’ powerful shots put the Super Giants on the front foot as they scored 89-1 in 10 overs.
Bowling Wizardry:
The first ball of the 11th over off Kuldeep Yadav flew away to extra cover for a six. However, Kuldeep had the last laugh. The last ball of the same over perplexed Deepak Hooda with a googly and the partnership of 79 was broken.
Immediately next, our Vice Captain Axar Patel bowled out the dangerman Mayers with his mastery and followed it up with a ferocious reaction.
Khaleel joined the party as he took out Stoinis cheaply. Sarfaraz Khan completed the loose edge with a simple catch behind the stumps.
Another beauty by Khaleel helped him reach the milestone of 50 wickets in the TATA IPL. He scalped Nicholas Pooran with the help of Prithvi Shaw taking a sharp catch at extra cover.
In the last over, we welcomed our first Impact player Aman Khan who got subbed in for Khaleel Ahmed.
Meanwhile, Lucknow’s Ayush Badoni beefed up the Super Giants’ total with consecutive sixes before he fell prey to Sakariya’s off-cutter
LSG finished with a challenging 193/6 on the board.
Bouncing Back:
Our skipper’s blistering energy and Shaw’s crackling display gave us a dream start. They scored 17 runs in the second over.
But two consecutive upsets from Mark Wood rattled our den as we lost Shaw for 12 and Mitchell Marsh for a golden duck. We ended the powerplay with 47-2.
With Sarfaraz on one end, Davey kept us floating against Lucknow’s lethal pace attack.
When we got a partnership forming, Wood scalped his third as he caught Sarfaraz in the seventh over.
But Rilee Rossouw punished the Super Giants with sheer dominance. He single-handedly smashed Ravi Bishnoi for 17 runs in the 10th over, ticking the scoreboard to 75-3.
Fighting Till The End:
Warner and Rossouw kept us alive in the competition, smashing more runs in the 11th over.
The 12th over brought back a strange dismissal of Rossouw as he unluckily succumbed to Bishnoi.
On the upside, Warner came up with a crucial half-century as he stood tall throughout our innings.
Aman Khan also gave us hope with his quick running between the wickets. But it soon ended as Avesh Khan picked up his first scalp.
Within three balls, we lost our skipper’s wicket. The sticky pitch of Lucknow outdid Warner’s lone fight.
Axar Patel, Kuldeep and Sakariya put their best foot forward to bring us closer to victory. But the pace-friendly track was not in our favour. We lost two more wickets in the last over as Mark Wood completed his 5-for.
Despite fighting till the last over, we lost our season opener by 50 runs.
It is not the heartbreak we expected. We will ROAR at our home ground in the next fixture. Till then, Dilliwalon, keep supporting!
Brief Scores: Lucknow Super Giants 193/6 in 20 overs with Kyle Mayers 73(38), Nicholas Pooran 36(21); Khaleel Ahmed 2/30 beat Delhi Capitals 143/9 in 20 overs with David Warner 56(48), Rilee Russouw 30(20); Mark Wood 5/14 by 50 runs.
Player of the Match: Mark Wood.
