The Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) hosted the Gujarat Titans (GT) in the 30th match of the 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL) on Saturday, April 22. The Hardik Pandya-led side emerged victorious by seven runs following a thrilling contest at the Ekana Stadium.
GT skipper Hardik Pandya won the toss and elected to bat first in the afternoon encounter. The visitors could not put their best foot forward on the dry, slow surface on offer in Lucknow.
Hardik Pandya, coming in at No. 3 did the bulk of the scoring, while the majority of GT batters, including Shubman Gill and David Miller, struggled on the surface. LSG bowlers put up a spirited bowling display to restrict their opposition to 135-6 in the first innings.
LSG planned the initial portion of the run chase to near-perfection, beginning with a solid foundation in the powerplay overs. KL Rahul gradually accelerated to notch a half-century, but he took the chase too deep as the GT death bowlers got into the act. The home side could only score 23 runs off the final five overs, which included a nerveless final four-wicket over by Mohit Sharma.
IPL 2023 Orange Cap updated list
Shubman Gill, GT's leading run scorer in IPL 2023 so far, was dismissed for a duck to kickstart the contest. The youngster's fourth duck of his IPL career kept his run tally to 228 after seven matches.
Kyle Mayers helped LSG to a brisk start in the run chase, particularly by taking on Rashid Khan before perishing to the leg-spinner right after the powerplay. The explosive opening batter scored 24 runs off 19 deliveries to take his season tally to 243 runs in seven matches, placing him seventh on the list.
KL Rahul entered the Orange Cap conversation following his second fifty of the campaign. His 68 runs off 61 deliveries, extends his run tally to 252 runs from seven matches at a strike rate of 117.75. He now holds the fifth spot in the run-scoring charts.
IPL 2023 Purple Cap updated list
Among the leading wicket-takers in IPL 2023, Mark Wood missed the encounter against GT and he remains rooted with 11 wickets from four matches.
Ravi Bishnoi surprisingly ended up with horrid figures of 0-49, on a surface that was arguably tailor-made for him. The leg-spinner's wicket tally for the season remains at eight, keeping him in the 12th spot.
Rashid Khan finished with figures of 1-33 after being taken down by Kyle Mayers with a flurry of boundaries in his first over. The Afghan leggie got the better of the Caribbean all-rounder to claim his 12th wicket of the ongoing campaign, which moves him level with Royal Challengers Bangalore's (RCB) Mohammed Siraj, the current Purple Cap holder.
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