Lucknow Super Kings captain Krunal Pandya was delighted after their seven-wicket win against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, Hyderabad on Saturday. While chasing the target of 183 runs, Pandya revealed that they had the belief to chase down the score with Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran waiting in the dug out.
Rookie batter Prerak Mankad scored an unbeaten 64 runs off 45 balls as he played at the top of his game and impressed with his game. However, the much-needed impetus was provided by Marcus Stoinis, who scored 40 runs from 25 balls.
Furthermore, Nicholas Pooran added the finishing touches with a splendid cameo of 44 off just 13 balls with the help of three fours and four sixes to get his team over the line.
Meanwhile, SRH posted a decent score of 182 runs on the board after Heinrich Klaasen scored 47 runs from 29 balls. Anmolpreet Singh (36), Aiden Markram (28), and Abdul Samad (37) played crucial knocks for the Orange Army but none of the batters could go on to score a fifty.
On the other hand, Krunal Pandya led from the front as he returned with figures of 2-24 in his quota of four overs. Pandya had his opposite number Aiden Markram bowled with a peach of a deliver whereas he also dismissed dangerous Glenn Phillips on a golden duck.
Pandya also showered praise on the fast bowling duo of Avesh Khan and Yash Thakur. Avesh conceded 30 runs in the two overs he bowled but got the big wicket of Heinrich Klaasen, who was taking the game away from LSG. Furthermore, Thakur returned with figures of 1-28 in his allotted four overs.
Krunal Pandya said in the post-match presentation, “With the way they were going I thought 200, but we pulled it back nicely towards the end especially by Yash and Avesh. At this level anything is possible, we had the belief and with players like Stoinis and Pooran, we had to believe.”
He added, “We knew we had to go and there was nothing special (was said during the timeout), luckily it paid off for us and Abhishek’s over changed the momentum. He’s (Prerak Mankad) coming in for his first season and to come out and bat like that shows a lot of character, really happy for him to coming out here and score those runs. Even he will believe he belongs here.”
With this win, LSG climbed to the fourth spot in the points table. LSG will next take on Mumbai Indians at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow on Tuesday.
