(ESPN) The Ekana Stadium crowd in Lucknow was served the perfect buffet on Friday night: spectacular MS Dhoni fireworks that powered Chennai Super Kings to a competitive 176 for 6 and then the home team Lucknow Super Giants chasing it down with a classy 82 off 53 from captain KL Rahul.
LSG’s chase was set up by a dominant century opening stand – the first for them this season – between Rahul and Quinton de Kock, which didn’t allow any CSK bowler to settle in. They collected boundaries regularly to score 54 in the powerplay, they didn’t let CSK fight back in the middle overs (which they have done often this IPL), they didn’t let the asking rate touch ten, and by the time de Kock fell for 54 in the 15th over, they needed a comfortable 43 from 30 balls.
Rahul also fell before the close, to a stunning catch by Ravindra Jadeja at backward point, but that didn’t stop LSG from romping home with eight wickets in hand and an over to spare.
The LSG batters have copped criticism this season for either not scoring quickly at the start, or for throwing their wickets away, or for leaving too much to do for Nicholas Pooran. On Friday, Rahul and de Kock didn’t do any of those things, putting up a century stand in just 10.5 overs to set up the chase.
Rahul led the partnership with strokes dripping with class. He middled his pulls against the short balls, drove confidently down the ground, played the pick-up shots like he usually does, and even used the pace of Matheesha Pathirana to upper cut him for six.
Rahul often plays such strokes in T20s but it was the frequency with which he was hitting them on the night that was different. After collecting 12 off Deepak Chahar’s second over – the third of the innings – that included a six over midwicket, he drilled Mustafizur Rahman back in the next over. And when de Kock and Rahul combined for 6, 4 and 6 across the fifth and sixth overs to take them to 54 in the powerplay, it was fairly evident that LSG were in pole position to get home comfortably.
LSG were helped further when de Kock miscued Jadeja in the ninth over but Pathirana shelled the chance at short third. De Kock made CSK pay in Jadeja’s next over with a boundary on the leg side before Rahul inflicted more pain with back-to-back fours, which took him past fifty.
With 74 to get from 54, the two slowed down briefly before de Kock also got to his fifty. He fell for 54, caught by Dhoni trying to ramp a Mustafizur Rahman slower ball.
But Pooran came out with the aim of hitting boundaries and finished the game off with his third four that sealed the chase with six balls to spare.
CSK are known to pull rabbits out of the hat from time to time, and the latest was to send out Jadeja at No. 4.
Soon after they were put in, they had lost Rachin Ravindra for a golden duck and, three overs later, Ruturaj Gaikwad edged a Yash Thakur outswinger behind.
Losing two wickets in the powerplay, perhaps, made CSK save Shivam Dube for later and send out Jadeja, and he played a key hand in CSK getting to a competitive score.
Ajinkya Rahane, meanwhile, made CSK tick along nicely with a regular flow of boundaries, his crisp timing in full display. The pick of those was a six over midwicket off Matt Henry and an exquisite drive off Thakur for four.
Rahul brought on spin from both ends as soon as the field spread out and it worked when Krunal Pandya hit Rahane’s leg stump to send him back for 36 off 24.
Dube walked out at No. 5, but it was Jadeja who collected boundaries in consecutive overs by hitting with the spin of Krunal and Ravi Bishnoi.
Jadeja, however, did not get the company of CSK’s big hitters for long. Dube first miscued a Marcus Stoinis short ball, bowled at 125.4kph, to be taken by Rahul, and Sameer Rizvi, soon after, danced down the pitch to Krunal but couldn’t get close to the ball and was stumped. CSK were suddenly 93 for 5 after 13 overs.
The LSG bowlers stifled Moeen Ali and Jadeja – they went 34 balls without a boundary. Jadeja broke the drought in the 16th over, and reached his fifty in the 17th with a six off Mohsin Khan that Deepak Hooda should have taken but only managed to tip over.
Moeen set things up for Dhoni with three sixes in a row off Bishnoi in the 18th over, and Dhoni came out to a rapturous reception when Moeen holed out attempting a fourth six off the same bowler.
After a single off his first ball, Dhoni was facing two inexperienced bowlers in Mohsin and Thakur. He first bashed Mohsin to the extra-cover boundary for a one-bounce four, and followed it with the most un-Dhoniesque six you’ll see: walking across because Mohsin had been bowling them wide outside off and lapping him over the keeper’s head. It was a 14-run over that included three wides.
The fans – almost entirely yellow – were having the time of their lives. And when Dhoni got the strike in the last over, he clobbered a six over cow corner. Thakur attempted wide yorkers that resulted in two more fours off the last three balls and Dhoni finished on 28 off just nine balls that helped CSK smash 63 in last four overs. It was fun but not nearly enough.
