Delhi Capitals. (Photo Source: BCCI/IPL)
Match No.3 of the ongoing Indian Premier League 2023 took place at Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow. The match saw Delhi Capitals and Lucknow Super Giants play their respective tournament openers. Winning the toss, the Delhi skipper elected to field first. For LSG, debutant Mayers and Rahul opened the batting where the start was slow and Rahul lost his wicket cheaply scoring just 8 off 12 balls.
In the powerplay, the Lucknow-based franchise could add only 30 runs. Mayers then partnered with Deepak Hooda, who played the role of taking singles to give strike to the in-form Mayers. The Caribbean did not disappoint, as he started scoring quick boundaries to up the ante, after a rather slow start. Both the batters added 79 runs for the second wicket before Hooda (17 runs off 18 balls) was dismissed by Kuldeep Yadav’s bowling. The next batters, Krunal Pandya and Marcus Stoinis couldn’t do any wonders with the bat, however, Mayers looked solid at one end.
After the loss of four wickets, Mayers partnered with his Caribbean teammate Nicholas Pooran, who further scored 36 off 21 deliveries. Following his dismissal, Ayush Badoni played a brisk cameo smashing 18 runs off 7 balls. Impact Player Krishnappa Gowtham hit a maximum on the last ball of the innings, as Super Giants scored 193 and lost six wickets. Left-arm pacers Khaleel Ahmed and Chetan Sakariya picked two wickets each whereas left-arm spinners Kuldeep and Axar Patel grabbed a scalp each.
Coming into bat, Delhi openers Prithvi Shaw and Warner began well, but Mark Wood cleaned Shaw’s off stump in the fifth over to send him to the pavilion. On the very next delivery, Wood picked up the scalp of in-form Mitch Marsh to create a hattrick opportunity for himself. Ever since two early blows in the powerplay, the Delhi-based franchise couldn’t capitalize on their start, as the required run rate kept ticking. Rilee Russouw tried to shift the momentum but lost his wicket to leg spinner Ravi Bishnoi. David Warner scored a fifty, but his innings were not enough against the run rate required in the scenario.
Wood returned with his second spell to further dismiss Sarfaraz Khan, Axar Patel, and Chetan Sakariya, to finish with a spell of 5 wickets, conceding just 14 in his quota of 4 overs. The English pacer’s spell also became the first 5-wicket haul of the marquee tournament. Apart from Wood, Avesh Khan and Bishnoi took two wickets each to restrict the visiting side to a total of 143 in their 20 overs, thereby winning the game by a margin of 50 runs.
