CHENNAI: Half-century from Marcus Stoinis (58) and late blitz from Nicholas Pooran (32 n.o) helped Lucknow Super Giants post 163/5 against Gujarat Titans in Lucknow on Sunday.
Opting to bat first, LSG were off to a shocking start. Umesh Yadav rushed Quinton de Kock with a sharp bouncer and the South African was back in the pavilion. In his next over, he struck again, and this time it was the wicket of Devdutt Padikkal. Umesh delivered a back of length delivery in the channel, the ball shaped away with the angle and took the outside edge. Soon, captain Rahul found himself doing the rescue act along with Stoinis.
Rahul turned the fortunes around with consecutive boundaries off Spencer Johnson in the fourth over. His first an off-drive and then came a slice through point before Stoinis finished the over with a punch down the ground for four.
Umesh, meanwhile, kept it tidy at the other end, and Shubman Gill brought back Rashid Khan to complete the powerplay. The veteran spinner did his job to perfection, conceding just four runs as LSG finished the first six overs with 47/2.
Soon, Noor Ahmed started from the other end. And all of a sudden, Rashid and Noor were applying the brakes in the run rate. With the boundaries not coming fluently Lucknow strutted their way to 74/2 at the halfway mark. At that point, Rahul was batting on 28 from 25 balls while Stoinis was on 29 from 24.
