17 runs needed in the last over. Unbeaten Marcus Stoinis scored a century on strike, Mustafizur Rahman on bowling. Hand-to-hand thrilling fight. But the Australian all-rounder did not let anything happen. Mustafiz blasted one boundary after another and gave Lucknow Super Giants a remarkable victory in the fortress of Chennai Super Kings.
Lokesh Rahul’s team won the IPL by 6 wickets on Tuesday. They passed Chennai’s 210 with 3 balls to spare.
Stoinis is the hero of this great victory. He scored 124 runs off 63 balls with six sixes and 13 fours.
Mustafiz took 1 wicket with 51 runs in 3.3 overs on a fading day.
Stoinis hit a six and a four in the first two balls of the last over. Mustafiz ‘no’ the third ball, that too was a four. Stoinis took the team to the port of victory with another four in the free hit.
Coming into the attack for the first time in the fifth over, Mustafiz managed a four off his first ball. A length ball outside the off stump gets some space and Rahul sends it between cover and mid off for the boundary.
The batsman was almost getting bowled trying to hit the next ball. Unable to bat, the ball goes over the off stump.
Rahul could not play the bat even though he continued strongly in the third ball. Mustafiz sent him back on the next ball. The batsman moved away trying to make room, the left-arm pacer kept the ball on the off-stump. Rahul could not play properly, easy catch goes to Ruturaj Gaikwad at extra cover.
New batsman Devdut Padikkal bowled the next two balls.
Mustafiz got the ball again in the fifteenth over. At that time, Lucknow needed 87 runs in 6 overs. The left-arm pacer bowled in Kharuche. Nicholas Pooran’s bat digested four, Stoinis’ bat six. 13 runs from the over.
47 runs were required in the last 3 overs. Returning to the attack in the eighteenth over, Mustafiz hit a six off the second ball. Stoinis reached 98 runs. He reached his century with two runs off one ball, the first century by an Australian all-rounder in the IPL.
Mustafiz hit the last ball of the over by Deepak Hooda for a six, 15 runs from the over.
The Chennai captain relied on Mustafiz, who had taken 11 wickets in six matches earlier this day, in the last over. But the Bangladeshi pacer could not put up a fight with random bowling.
Earlier, captain Ruturraj’s unbeaten century and Shivam Dube’s explosive fifty made Chennai collect two hundreds.
Ruturaj scored 108 runs in 60 balls with three sixes and 12 fours in his sixth T20I century and his first century in the current season. Dube ran rampant on his way to a 46-ball 104-run partnership with him. He scored 66 runs off 27 balls with seven sixes and three fours.
