Riding on captain KL Rahul’s unbeaten 103 off 60 balls, Lucknow Super Giants defeated Mumbai Indians by 18 runs at the Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader. With this win, LSG entered the top four of the IPL 2022 points table. The Lucknow side is currently occupying the second spot behind table topper Gujarat Titans.

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Among the LSG bowlers, Avesh Khan stood out. The Indian pacer picked up three wickets for 30 runs in four overs.

Earlier in the
afternoon, Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and decided to field
first. Batting first, LSG got off to a flying start, with Quinton de Kock (24
off 13 balls) and Rahul sharing a 52-run partnership. De Kock was eventually dismissed by Fabian Allen
in the sixth over.

KL Rahul smashed a
56-ball hundred. The right-handed batter hit five sixes and nine
boundaries during his magnificent knock. This was his third IPL hundred. He
achieved the feat in his 100th IPL match. He maintained a strike rate of
171.67.

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Rahul was
eventually unbeaten on 103 off 60 balls as LSG post 199 for 4 in 20 overs. The
second-highest scorer of LSG innings was Manish Pandey, who scored 38 off 29
balls.

On way to his
hundred, Rahul added 52 for the opening stand with de Kock, 72 with Pandey, and
another brisk 43 runs with Deepak Hooda (15 off 8 balls) for the fourth wicket.

MI’s fielding was
perhaps their worst in the past four to five seasons and it didn’t help matters
that Rahul was in imperious form to make full use of it.

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In reply to the 200 runs target, MI lost
wickets at regular intervals. Captain Rohit was the first batter to fall when
Avesh Khan got a leading edge to wicketkeeper de Kock. The LSG pacer
struck again in the sixth over. This time, he dismissed Dewald Brevis. In the
seven over, Marcus Stoinis removed dangerous Ishan Kishan to deny MI a good start.

Brevis (31 off 13)
and Suryakumar Yadav (37 off 27 balls) tried to rebuild the innings but
Stoinis’ strike cut short the South African’s effort. Suryakumar was dismissed
by Ravi Bishnoi. Tilak Varma (26 off 26) and veteran Keiron Pollard (25 off 14)
again took the initiative to retune the chase but their presence at the crease
was cut short by Jason Holder and Dushmantha Chameera, respectively.

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Bereft of credible
options in the dug-out, it was only natural that the tournament’s most
successful skipper Rohit Sharma looked clearly out of ideas as his ploy of
playing an extra spinner in left-arm orthodox 
Fabian Allen (1/46 in 4 overs) didn’t quite work out. 

Not having a Trent
Boult, Krual Pandya or a Rahul Chahar is hurting MI badly and getting as many
as 16 middle-of-the-road players for just Rs 18 crore has not proved to be a
wise business decision so far.

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With this defeat, MI hit the
rock bottom of the points table with six losses in six games.