Lucknow beat Mumbai to stay in contention for top-four in IPL 2023

Mohsin Khan held his nerve to defend 11 runs off the final over as Lucknow Super Giants beat Mumbai Indians by five runs on Tuesday to move one step closer to the knockouts in the Indian Premier League.

Lucknow is now up to third in the points table with 15 points from 13 games, trailing Chennai Super Kings on net run-rate, while Mumbai remained on 14 points but moved down to fourth from second.

Khan conceded only five runs off the last over as Mumbai finished with 172-5, despite opener Ishan Kishan’s 59 off 39 balls. Earlier, Marcus Stoinis’ 89 not out off 47 balls had powered Lucknow to 177-3 in 20 overs.

Lucknow had a poor start, though, as Mumbai's bowlers rocked the top order.

Jason Behrendorff dismissed Deepak Hooda for 5 and impact player Prerak Mankad for a golden duck in the third over. Piyush Chawla made it 35-3 in the seventh over as Quinton de Kock was out caught for 16 runs.

Lucknow had only managed 35 runs in the powerplay overs, when Stoinis and stand-in skipper Krunal Pandya came together. The duo added 82 off 59 balls to resurrect the innings.

Pandya scored 49 off 42 balls, with a four and a six each, before he was retired hurt. It was Pandya’s highest IPL score since 2017.

But the night belonged to Stoinis, who hit four fours and eight sixes to up the ante for Lucknow’s innings. He scored 50 off 36 balls, and then added another 39 runs off only 11 balls.

Nicholas Pooran only faced eight deliveries at the other end as they added 60 off 24 balls, with Stoinis doing the bulk of the scoring.

It was enough to take Lucknow to a par-plus score on a slowing wicket, even as Mumbai got off to a great start.
Kishan and Rohit Sharma (37) put on 90 off 58 balls, as the five-time champions seemed on track for another successful chase.

Wrist spinner Ravi Bishnoi had other plans as he picked 2-26 in four overs to apply the brakes to Mumbai’s innings. He first had Sharma caught in the 10th over, and then 10 deliveries later, he sent back Kishan as well.

The big blow came when Suryakumar Yadav fell to Yash Thakur for seven runs. Yadav chopped onto his stumps trying to manufacture a shot over fine leg.

Mumbai’s innings lost steam completely, down to 141-4 in 16.1 overs, as Khan sent back in-form Nehal Wadhera for 16.

It became 145-5 when impact player Vishnu Vinod was out to Thakur, as Mumbai lost four wickets for 42 runs across 39 deliveries.

Tim David smacked 32 not out off 19 balls, including three sixes, but even his big-hitting prowess was not able to help Mumbai.

Associated Press