The Lucknow Super Giants bowlers' exceptional performance restricted five-time champions Mumbai Indians to 191 as the hosts registered a 12 run win at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana cricket stadium in Lucknow on Friday, April 4, 2025.
MI invited the home team to bat, who went past the 200 run mark.
LSG set MI 204 to win and the visitors fell short by 12 runs.
The best bowlers of the night...
Hardik Pandya
LSG got off to a rollicking start, all thanks to Mitchell Marsh who smashed the bowling all around the park and brought up his 50 off just 27 balls.
His charge was halted by Vignesh Puthur who completed a good return catch and get the first breakthrough.
Here on, LSG stuttered a little as MI Captain Hardik Pandya took centrestage.
He read the pitch well and bowled according to conditions and ended up with his maiden five-wicket haul in T20 cricket.
Hardik used the slower bouncer to good effect as he became the first medium pacer-captain in IPL history to take a five wicket haul.
Hardik began with the wicket of Nicholas Pooran who failed to control a pull shot only for the short fine fielder to complete a simple catch.
Rishabh Pant was his next victim and the slower ball came into play once again. Pant looked to tuck the ball towards the leg side, only for the ball to fly off the leading edge and the LSG skipper was nicely caught by Corbin Bosch at mid on.
Hardik came back at the death and removed a well-set Aiden Markram in the 18th over. He removed the dangerous David Miller and then Akash Deep in the last over to finish with 5 for 36 off his four overs.
MI is not enjoying the best of times but Hardik's luck is at the other spectrum. In three matches thus far this season, the MI captain already has 8 wickets at an average of 9.38 and an economy of 7.50.
Given his form, he will hope his personal luck rubs off on the team.
Digvesh Rathi
A product of the Delhi domestic T20 league, this mystery spinner is turning on the charm -- he had figures of 1 for 21 in his four overs.
On Friday, while MI were going smoothly in their chase, Rathi bowled his opening over, and gave 9 in the over.
At 86 for 2 in 8 overs, MI were going great guns and LSG were under the pump and that is when Rathi was brought back for his second spell in the 9th over.
He immediately made impact -- a good length ball, pitching outside off stump, Rathi brought out the the carrom ball. Naman Dhir tried to flick it to the off-side, missed it completely only to hear the death knell, the ball rattling the off-stump.
Rathi brought out the controversial send-off that saw him penalised 25 per cent of his match fees in the previous game.
Rathi carried the momentum and confidence right through his spell. Tilak Varma in particular found him a task to score off and was watchful as Rathi bowled googlies consistently.
He was taken for 11 runs in his final over but his ability to keep the batters in check came to the fore.
The man who has modelled his bowling on his hero Sunil Narine, who plays for Kolkata Knight Riders, is slowly moving up the charts, he now has 6 wickets for 122 runs in 16 overs, at an average of 20.33 and an economy rate of 7.63 and strike rate of 16.
He is certainly one of the many local finds this IPL and rightly took home the player of the match award.
Avesh Khan-Shardul Thakur
We often talk of partnerships in batting. Very rarely does the opportunity come to appreciate partnerships among bowlers.
And Friday night in Lucknow, presented that opportumity.
Shardul Thakur, who opened the attack, was taken to the cleaners by Ryan Rickelton, before he had the batter caught in the deep. But Naman Dhir kept MI's momentum with a six to get off the mark as 12 runs and a wicket came off his 2nd over.
Avesh Khan was brought on in the 5th over and started off strongly giving just three singles off the first five balls before Suryakumar Yadav pulled a short ball for 6 to 9 runs from the over.
Avesh lost control in the next over as SKY smashed him for two fours either side of the wicket, with 12 runs coming off it.
Thakur came back for his third over and sprayed the ball wide, twice, before being hammered for a four and giving 12 runs in the over.
Avesh was brought back in the 17th over and broke the partnership with SKY reaching for the short wide ball but was not in control of this scoop and was nicely caught at deep backward square leg.
The joy for Avesh was momentary as Hardik and Tilak hammered him for two fours in the overs, another 12 runs shaved off the bowler.
The turning point came when MI needed 29 off 18 balls and Thakur gave nothing away and the fielders complimented him well as the batters took five singles off the first five balls and an off colour Tilak was forced to retire out.
Mitchell Santer ensures two runs off the last ball of the over with Thakur giving only 7 runs in his final over.
Avesh is known to be a death overs specialist but defending 22 in the last over was a major ask. The first ball of the over, he bowled a full toss and Hardik lofted it for a six. Hardik takes a couple of runs the next ball.
But Avesh did well to make amends as he bowled it full and straight, his under-rated yorkers making it hard. Hardik played two dots before taking a single to long off.
With 13 needed off 1, all Avesh had to do was bowl a legal delivery and he did that to take LSG to victory. Both bowlers finished with identical figures of 1 for 40 in their four over spells.
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