Krunal’s allround show helps LSG register second win

Lucknow: Allround performance of Krunal Pandya, and Amit Mishra’s two-fer helped Lucknow SuperGiants (LSG) to register their second victory in this year’s IPL season at Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium here on Friday.
Batting first, Hyderabad could muster up a paltry 121/8. In reply, Lucknow romped home with 24 balls to spare with final score reading 127/5.
Captain KL Rahul (35 off 34) and Krunal (34 off 23) steadied the ship after the hosts lost two wickets for 45 runs. The duo stitched a crucial 55 runs for third wicket which built the foundation for a certain victory.
Krunal was pick of the bowler with 3/18 and was ably helped by Mishra who ended with figures of 2/23. The duo used the sticky wicket to their advantage.
Krunal got rid of opener Mayank Agarwal for 8 and then Anmolpreet Singh for 31, and cleaned up captain Aiden Makram in the same over.
Hyderabad laboured hard to press the accelerator on a sluggish track, as Rahul Tripathi (35 off 41) and Washington Sundar (16 off 28) dropped anchor.
Mishra, the ever-green leggie, returned to the IPL stage, and did not miss a chance to use the spinner-friendly track to his advantage and scalp two wickets, besides taking a diving catch to dismiss Tripathi.
Abdul Samad came out and smashed two sixes in the final over, but the total was not enough to defend.
Beginning the chase, Lucknow lost Kyle Mayers early for 13 and Deepak Hooda for 7, off the bowling of Fazalhaq Farooqi and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, respectively.
After Krunal’s departure, Rahul and Romario Shepherd (0) followed suit in consecutive balls off Adil Rashid.
Marcus Stoinis (10) and Nicholos Pooran (11) completed the final rites of Hyderabad.
Hyderabad needed to be right on the money with the ball to make a game of it, but it did not materialise as they offered too many freebies on offer.
They also had a very poor day on the field as well.