Watch cricket video highlights between Delhi Capitals vs Lucknow Super Giants. Indian Premier League 2024 twenty sixth match, played at Lucknow.
With a six-wicket victory against Lucknow Super Giants on Friday, the Delhi Capitals broke their hold on defenses scoring 160 runs or more and moved up to the top of the IPL 2024 standings. After making his IPL debut, Australia’s Jake Fraser-McGurk struck a brilliant half-century, inspiring Kuldeep Yadav to return from injury and help them reach their mark with 11 balls remaining.
LSG won the toss and elected to bat first. Despite a shaky innings, they managed to finish above 160, a threshold they had never fallen below while batting first. With 39 off 22, KL Rahul gave them a quick start. However, in just nine balls, Kuldeep destroyed the top order. Following Kuldeep’s sacking of Rahul, LSG 77 was down to 5 and their situation worsened before improving.
After 13 overs, DC looked certain of a walkover with the score at 94 for 7. However, Ayush Badoni’s fifty runs in 31 balls and an uninterrupted partnership of 73 with Arshad Khan (an IPL record for the eighth wicket) at least provided some target practice for LSG’s highly regarded spin attack.
After suffering four straight losses, DC may have questioned whether their opportunity had been lost. After Prithvi Shaw calmed some of the tension with a strong start to the chase, Fraser-McGurk, a 22-year-old Melbourne native, took over to give the pyrotechnics. He hit a massive six over deep midwicket for his first scoring stroke, and he went on to raise his half-century from 31 balls by clearing the ropes four more times. After a stand of 77 off 46, he and Rishabh Pant both left, but DC was already well ahead of schedule.
Six months have passed since Fraser-McGurk made headlines around the world by surpassing AB de Villiers’ record for the quickest List A century, which he achieved while batting for South Australia in just 29 balls. That was, astonishingly, his first century in professional cricket, but he had a breakthrough summer that saw him earn a cap for Australia against the West Indies in their ODI series. On his debut, he smashed his third ball for four, his fourth for six, and was out on his fifth ball.
After David Warner was removed by Yash Thakur and he entered at No. 3 in Lucknow, he adhered to his core values. After swatting his second ball carelessly off the front foot over midwicket, a stroke that his DC coach, Ricky Ponting, would have undoubtedly relished, he smashed an even greater blow over wide long-on with his fifth delivery. Before the LSG spinners arrived to pose a new challenge, he reached 16 off seven (with three scoring strokes) after another swipe for four.
A slowing was inevitable, as his next 16 balls yielded nine runs. However, Fraser-McGurk unleashed his fury on Krunal Pandya, hitting him for three straight sixes over long-off, extra cover, and midwicket, ultimately ending the home team’s hopes, just as the game looked to be back in the balance.
Being the captain, wicketkeeper, and top batsman for the Capitals throughout their difficult times has fallen especially heavily on Pant, who missed more than a year of action due to an automobile accident. Pant’s agonizing conversation with umpire Rohan Pandit during the LSG innings, following his fruitless attempt to review a wide (seeing as though he hadn’t reviewed it at all), encapsulated the state of affairs thus far.
However, Pant made a cunning move after Nicholas Pooran’s incredible diving grab in the deep to dismiss Shaw was made by Ravi Bishnoi. He started out slowly and had Fraser-McGurk worried, but on his twelfth delivery, he launched Bishnoi for a massive straight six and then smashed past the covers for four runs. Before Fraser-McGurk went all out, Marcus Stoinis added two more boundaries, one of which was an incredible reverse-scoop to keep DC up with the pace.
By the time Fraser-McGurk negotiated his way to deep third, the need was less than a run a ball. Pant was stumped in the following over while racing at Bishnoi, but the heavy work was already done.
LSG has a tried-and-true batting order pattern, and toward the conclusion of the powerplay, they appeared to be playing according to plan. There was no panic in the stands despite Quinton de Kock hitting two fours in the opening over, Rahul’s third ball being thrashed over cover for a flat six, and Khaleel Ahmed removing both de Kock and Devdutt Padikkal, who extended his run of single-figure scores in an LSG shirt to five. However, things could have been different if Khaleel had held on to a sharp return catch off Stoinis first ball.
As LSG easily concluded the powerplay on 57 for 2, Rahul replied by hitting Khaleel back down the ground for four. Rahul then found the boundary twice more off Mukesh Kumar. Rahul’s 30 off 14 was his joint-highest six-over score for LSG, which boded poorly for DC.
The top wristspinner for the Capitals had been sidelined for the previous three games due to a groin issue, but he quickly caught the LSG innings by surprise. With his third delivery, Stoinis gave wicket to Kuldeep, but he could not take use of his early reprieve, slicing a googly to backward point. The following delivery was even better; it was another brilliantly disguised wrong’un that tricked LSG’s top run scorer, Pooran, into losing his off stump as he was playing all over the ball.
Rahul’s forceful blow was again blunted by Kuldeep in his second over, with a review showing a slight edge behind as the LSG skipper tried to cut a faster, wide delivery. With Krunal gloving a Mukesh bouncer behind and impact sub Deepak Hooda top-edging tamely to point, LSG had collapsed to 94 for 7, looking to be in serious trouble.
The middle order collapsed throughout the first six complete overs of the LSG innings, but Badoni and Arshad gradually restored their chances. In addition to pulling off backward point and ending the drought with back-to-back fours off Mukesh, Badoni concentrated on collecting ones and twos against Kuldeep and Axar Patel’s spin.
When the pace picked up again for the eighteenth, Badoni made the decision to pull out. As expected, Khaleel was smoked for six over deep midwicket, and Arshad obliged by smashing his maiden boundary over mid-off. To make things worse for Khaleel, Shaw dropped the No. 9 off the last ball of the over. on the 19th over, Badoni and Mukesh both lofted and then swiped the ball on route to a 31-ball fifty, as the eight-wicket combination successfully lifted LSG past the 160-mark. But this time, the enchantment had abandoned them.
Copyright – Third Party Reference Inline Linking Embedded Video from iplt20
