Shardul's Four Wickets Help Lucknow Silence Hyderabad

The Lucknow franchise achieved the 191-run target with 23 balls to spare

- Rasesh Mandani

[e-mail] MUMBAI: Rishabh Pant called the toss right and true to the etiquette that Lucknow is famous for, invited the opposition to bat first.

Post that, Lucknow Super Giants showed no mercy to Sunrisers Hyderabad, beating the Orange Army at their own high tempo game. They chased down 191 in 16.1 overs to score an important away win, their first of the season.

Nicholas Pooran's power-packed 70 (26b, 6x4, 6x6) and Mitchell Marsh's quickfire hit-through-the-line innings of 52 (31b, 7x4, 2x6) silenced the Hyderabad crowd that had come out in support of the Pat Cummins-led side.

Boundary riders don't matter to them. The uber-aggressive SRH would still come out swinging, we knew.

That is why it came as no surprise when Abhishek Sharma tried to clear deep square leg when Shardul Thakur dug one in short. Only this time, one half of SRH's dynamic left-handed opening partnership couldn't find distance and picked out one of the only two fielders in the deep.