*LSG VS MI REVIEW- ELIMINATOR*
*MUMBAI AND PLAYOFFS- A LOVE STORY BETTER THAN TWILIGHT?:*
LSG lose again, in the eliminator. Now it’s 2/2 for the Krunal led side but MI will be pumped with this result. A side that was known for chasing throughout the tournament has just produced a defence masterclass
on the back of an impressive bowling performance led by the emerging star and the find of the season for MI, Akash Madhwal.
The chase began with Mayers making his bat talk. But Madhwal brought about an end to Mankad’s innings and the next few years saw the back of Mayers who was looking dangerous, as well. Krunal and Stoinis joined hands thereafter and began counter attacking. The latter, especially, was phenomenal as he kept threatening Rohit and the MI camp with his effortless hitting and some gaps that he smartly pierced the ball through. Just when things were going on course, Krunal tried taking the leg spin of Chawla on and perished in the process. This turned out to be the game changing point as LSG could never really recover from that point on, losing wickets in a cluster and eventually collapsing. Akash Madhwal was introduced to the attack again, as he struck twice in the same over sending Badoni and Pooran( for a golden duck) back to the LSG dugout. Madhwal first deceived Badoni with the length he bowled, using his seam position and then bowled a superb outswinger to get the better of Pooran who looked to play away from his body.
From being 69/2 to 101 all out, LSG clearly lost the plot in the middle. Deepak Hooda was involved in three run-outs, two of which involved him running his team mate out and the third one was where he ran himself out. Naveen was left stranded at the other end as LSG lost all ten, in what would come to be described as “one of the craziest collapses in IPL history”. Madhwal finished with figures of 5/5 as he became the first player in the 16 years of IPL to take a fifer in the playoffs.
*GREEN-SKY PARTNERSHIP- THE RESCUE ACT FOR MI:*
MI started well, batting first but both Rohit and Kishan were sent packing in quick succession. However, Mumbai’s scoring rate did not take a toll as Green, coming off a stunning century entertained the crowd who had turned blue for the five time champions. He, along with the 360 degree SKY, helped MI cross the 60 run mark within the powerplay. They kept ticking the small boxes as the partnership moved forward and got to 98/2 after 10. Then came Naveen Ul Haq, and turned the game completely outfoxing both the set batters and bringing Lucknow back to the reckoning. After his heroics in one over, the next four overs yielded just 26 runs. Tilak and David were motoring along tentatively, taking calculative risks but David fell soon after after being surprised with a high full toss from Yash Thakur, giving an easy catch to Hooda at Long on. Tilak continued with the rescue act and was duly joined by Wadhera, who came in as the impact substitute. A cameo by the latter and a valuable 26 from Tilak early on helped MI post 182 on board. Naveen finished with a four-fer while Thakur grabbed 3. Given the surface at hand, this target was always going to be a tricky one and rightly so, MI defended it with ease. They will now face Gujarat in another stern test in Qualifier 2.