Rahul's sumptuous century; 6th loss for MI

The Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) defeated the Mumbai Indians (MI) in the twenty-sixth game of the 2022 Indian Premier League (IPL). The match was played in the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. Kananur Lokesh Rahul was adjudged to be the Man of the Match.

Powerplay a jumbled mess

Tilak Varma's offbreaks opened the bowling for Mumbai, who then used six different bowlers in the powerplay. The Super Giants' openers were unfazed by the bowling changes, with the exception of one swinging delivery from Jaydev Unadkat early on that nearly touched the top of Quinton de Kock's stumps. In the same over, de Kock smashed Unadkat for two fours, then followed it up with two more against Murugan Ashwin with his signature slog-sweeps. Meanwhile, Kananur Lokesh Rahul got himself in, plodding to 12 off 15 following a calm Jasprit Bumrah over before smashing two fours and a six off Tymal Mills' full and short deliveries in a 16-run over.

Fabian Allen, in his maiden IPL game, removed de Kock with his third ball, but not before conceding a six to him and then a first-ball four to Manish Pandey, giving the Super Giants a powerful 57 for 1 in the powerplay.

Where is Mumbai's A game these days?

The fact that Mumbai's bowlers made length errors on a pitch with shortish boundaries and didn't field like a champion side hurt them dearly. Pandey and Rahul were already smacking boundaries virtually every over, and Mumbai aided them in their efforts. Allen had two fours in a succession after a blunder at deep square-leg at the conclusion of the ninth over. Dewald Brevis stopped a Pandey boundary in the deep but collapsed as he looked like he was slapping it back for another player, and ended up lobbing it over the fence for four just after Rahul had smashed three sixes for a 33-ball half-century.

Rahul followed up with a low and wide full-toss to third man, where a misfield handed him four extra runs.

It's all there in Rahul's A game

Bumrah was screaming into his towel by this point, Rohit Sharma was on his haunches, and Rahul was looking better by the minute. Pandey was bowled for 38 by Ashwin after Mills went for another 18 runs in the 13th over with two fours from each batter, only for Marcus Stoinis to rocket a wrong'un over long-on for six off his first ball.

Rahul continued to impress against Allen with another 18-run over that included two big sixes. It was only Bumrah who temporarily halted the flow of runs, and the Super Giants seemed pleased to send him off with a few singles and doubles. For the rest, Rahul continued to hit the ball hard with his drives and scythes, one of which gave him his third IPL century in his 100th game.

Stoinis fell in the 17th over, while Unadkat and Bumrah gave up 22 in three of the last four overs to keep Super Giants under 200 when 210 or so appeared likely. Mills, on the other hand, bowled the penultimate over and was ripped apart by Deepak Hooda and Rahul for three fours and a six to finish on zero for 54 from four overs.

Mumbai shaken by Khan, Brevis shines once again

Before this game, Avesh Khan had a perfect record against Mumbai, taking five wickets in six overs for just 30 runs. On Saturday, he got Sharma to edge behind in his first over and then got Dewald Brevis to hand a catch to cover after a remarkable performance from the South African teenager.

Brevis hit his first ball across cover point for four before unleashing some hefty strokes for a 13-ball 31. He blasted Dushmantha Chameera over long-on for a massive six in the fifth over before slapping him for two fours. Next over, he whacked Khan for back-to-back fours, one of which nearly took the umpire's head, but he fell at the end of the powerplay, blasting a full-toss straight to cover.

After Ishan Kishan got out to Stoinis three balls later, Mumbai's hopes began to dwindle quickly. Suryakumar Yadav and Varma had to consolidate in the middle overs by not taking too many risks, and despite hitting four fours in the space of eight balls off Krunal Pandya and Ravi Bishnoi, the asking rate had risen to 12 runs per over with 84 required off 42 balls.

In the 14th over, Jason Holder's precise yorker terminated Varma's stay and the stand at 64, and Yadav holed out to deep midwicket off a top edge the next over, leaving all hopes on Kieron Pollard with a steep 68 off 24 required. The equation was reduced by Pollard's successive sixes off Chameera and Unadkat's 14 from six balls, but Mumbai were always falling short.