Choosing to bat first, SRH put on a handy total with Klaasen and Samad striking late. In LSG's run chase, Mankad struck a patient 45-ball 64, whereas Pooran took the SRH bowling apart with 44 runs from 13 balls, bringing their team home with 7 balls left.
Nicholas Pooran justified his Rs 16 crore billing, pulling off what looked like a difficult chase on a tacky track as Lucknow Super Giants were back in play-off hunt with a seven-wicket victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad in an Indian Premier League match in Hyderabad on Saturday. (More Cricket News) | (Scorecard)
A target of 183 was certainly not an easy proposition on a 𒐪track that got slower as the match progressed.
However, Pooran (44 not out ff 13 balls), with assistance from domestic bulwark Prerak Ma༺nkad (64 not out, 45 balls) and Marcus Stoinis (40 off 25 balls), helped LSG get past the target with four balls to spare.
LSG now have 13 points from 12 games and are now in fourth spot behind Gujarat Titans (16 points), CSK (15 points) and Mumbai Indians (14 points). H🌊owever, they will have to win their next two games to hav🌜e an assured berth in the last four stage.
As far 🐟as SRH are concerned, another tournament of non-performance is coming to an end with a below-par show.
Till the 15th over, SRH controlled theಞ proceedings as LSG crawled to 114 for 2, needing 68 more from five overs.
However, Aiden Markram's decision to give an extra over to part-time left-arm spinner Abhishek Sharma, who was walloped for five sixes in the 16th over, proved cos🐟tly.
Stoinis thumped him for two maximums before꧑ being holed ou༒t at deep extra cover boundary. But Pooran came in and hit two 100m-plus sixes and one straight to completely change the equation.
Credit should be given to Saurashtra'sဣ Mankad, who struggled to get going during the middle overs. But a pep-talk from mentor Gautam Gambhir during strategic time-out saw a sea-change in his approach as he showed more intent, hitting a straight six off T Natarajan.
Earlier, Krunal Pandya produꦇced a couple of back-to-back high quality꧒ deliveries before Heinrich Klaasen and Abdul Samad took Sunrisers Hyderabad to a competitive 182 for 6 after opting to bat first.
Not known as a big turner of the ball, LSG skipper Krunal (2/24 in 4 overs) bowled two identical classical left-arm orthodox deliveries, whꦆich had drift as well as enough turn to hoodwink Sunrisers skipper Aiden Markram (28 off 20 balls) and Glenn Phillips (0).
In the case of Markram, Krunal drew him forward be🔯fore the ball beat his outside edge to get stuඣmped.
And the same delivery, pitched on same length found Phillips going on back-foot to see it deviate past his bat and peg the off-stump back. Thaꦦt the ball gripped a bit on both occasions also helped the bowler's cause.
However, Heinrich Klaasen (47 off 29 balls), inarguably SRH's best batter, was in his natural attacking self as his three fours and an equal number of sixes took his team to aꦇ respectable total.
The difference between Krunal and leg-spinners Amit Mishra (1/40 in 4 overs) and🍌 Ravi Bishnoiꦬ (0/23 in 2 overs) was the optimum pace in his deliveries.
In the case of Bishnoi, he ended up bowling half-tracker෴s while tr🧸ying to bowl fast. When Mishra bowled, it didn't help as he is much slower through the air compared to his younger days. Hence, the batters got enough time to plan their shots.
Once Krunal's wickets reduced SRH to 115 for 5, Klaasen took it upon himself and got support from Abdu𝓡l Samad (37 not out off 25 balls) as the duo added 58 in 6.4 overs to take the scor💎e past the 175-run mark.
Towards the end of the SRH innings, the match was briefly stopped when third umpire withheld the on-field umpir🍰e's decision of ruling an Avesh Khan full-toss as a fair delivery when it looked a no-ball.
That agitated the crowd, which must have disturbed the LSG dug-out to brꦕiefly halꦆt proceedings and Klaasen lost his concentration to miss out on a well-deserved half-ton.