Lucknow; News Agency: Lucknow Super Giants beat Chennai Super Kings by 8 wickets to strengthen their position in the points table. Chennai Super Kings scored 176 runs in their first innings. In reply K. L. Rahul (82) and Quinton de Kock (54) put together a 134-run stand for Lucknow to build a winning palace.
The bowlers of Lucknow Super Giants stopped the strong batting of Chennai Super Kings for 176 runs and the batsmen also performed well. Opener Quinton de Kock and captain K. L. Rahul batted flawlessly; But the strike rate of both was within 150. Rahul reached his half-century in 31 balls, while de Kock reached his half-century in 41 balls. Finally after 15 overs Chennai got their first breakthrough. Mastfizur dismissed de Kock on a bouncing ball to Dhoni. He scored 54 runs in 43 balls. At this time, Lucknow were 134 for 1. So they needed 43 runs off the last 30 balls to win.
K. L. Rahul was joined by Nicholas Pooran. Both of them started the schedule of runs in their own way. Rahul became the victim of Jadeja's flying catch when the target was in check at 16 runs in 17 balls. He returned to the tent after scoring 82 runs off 53 balls. Pooran and Stoinis completed the formality of scoring 12 runs in the last two overs in just one over. Pooran hit the winning boundary. He remained unbeaten on 23, while Stoinis remained unbeaten on 8 runs.
Earlier, Lucknow Super Giants won the toss and elected to bowl first. CSK again sent Ajinkya Rahane to opener today. Rachin Ravindra became a golden duck off Mohsin Khan in the second over. His trifle flew. Yash Thakur broke Ajinkya and captain Rituraj's partnership of 29 (19 balls). Rituraj was caught for 17 runs. Chennai managed to score 51 for 2 in the power play. Ajinkya was bowled by Krunal Pandya for 36 runs off 24 balls with 5 fours and 1 six. Marcus Stoinis dismissed the dangerous Shivam Dubey (3) in his first and 12th over of the match to give Lucknow a big win. Sameer Rizvi (1) dismissed by Krunal; But Ravindra Jadeja was fighting the pass from the other side.
Moeen Ali played a powerful innings of 30 runs off 20 balls with 3 sixes. With the last two overs to go, Mahendra Singh Dhoni stormed again and smashed 12 runs off the first 4 balls. Dhoni remained unbeaten on 28 runs in this match with 3 fours and 2 sixes in 9 balls. Jadeja also scored an unbeaten knock of 57 to take Chennai to 176 for 6.
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