IPL 2022, LSG vs MI, Top Performances: Rahul's century, Avesh's 3-30 hand MI 6th defeat; LSG at no 2

IPL 2022, LSG vs MI, Top Performances: KL Rahul's century (103*), Avesh Khan's 3-30 and Unadkat's 2-32 are top performances. LSG move to no.2 in points table

KL Rahul scores century (103*) in his 100th IPL game (Images ©BCCI/IPL)

Brief Scores: LSG 199-4 (Rahul 103*, Pandey 38, Unadkat 2-32) beat MI 181-9 (Surya 37, Brevis 31, Avesh 3-30) by 18 runs

Player of the Match: KL Rahul (103* runs off 60 deliveries)

Mumbai Indians (MI), who were placed at the bottom of the table without a single win in IPL 2022, were up against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday afternoon.

On winning the toss, Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma opted to field first. While they handed a debut cap to Caribbean all-rounder Fabien Allen, Lucknow Super Giants included Manish Pandey replacing Krishnappa Gowtham.

Lucknow hand Mumbai their sixth straight defeat

LSG openers kicked off proceedings with a 52-run opening partnership off just 33 balls before Quinton de Kock was dismissed. But the game belonged to Lucknow captain KL Rahul, who first stitched up a 72-run partnership with Manish Pandey before registering his second IPL hundred to power his team to 199-4 at the end of their 20 overs.

Chasing a huge score, Mumbai didn’t start well losing their captain Rohit Sharma cheaply. Even though young Dewald Brevis smacked few gorgeous shots, they kept on losing wickets regularly. Despite the 64-run partnership between Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Verma, Mumbai tasted their sixth straight defeat in the 15th season of IPL.

Most successful captain of IPL - Rohit Sharma - is now the second Indian after Virat Kohli to lose their first six games of an IPL season.

Let’s scan top three impactful performances from the game between MI and LSG, IPL 2022:

LSG captain KL Rahul celebrates 100th IPL game with century

Lucknow Super Giants captain KL Rahul had a mixed tournament so far with one half-century and two first-ball ducks. Even though, he had an excellent record playing against the Mumbai Indians with 661 runs at an average of 66.10 including five fifties and one unbeaten century.

Put in to bat first, Rahul had a brisk fifty-run opening partnership with Quinton de Kock. After the latter got out, Rahul constructed another 72-run partnership with Manish Pandey. Mumbai missed a trick of not employing Jasprit Bumrah early against Rahul who has been dismissed two times against the former, scoring at an average strike rate of 125.

Soon, with some gorgeous shots, Rahul reached his 29th IPL fifty; since 2018, it was his seventh 50+ score in 10 innings against MI. The Karnataka batter kept the run flow going with more cracking shots in the form of both boundaries and sixes.

In just 56 balls, with a boundary, KL Rahul, playing his 100th IPL game, notched up his third IPL hundred. With that, he became only the fourth player to score two 100s against an opponent in IPL. His second century as captain made him just the second player to have multiple hundreds as captain in IPL after Virat Kohli (five). Rahul ended with 103*, the highest individual score in 100th IPL game, to fire LSG to 199-4.

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Avesh Khan takes 3-30 against Mumbai Indians (Images ©BCCI/IPL)

Avesh Khan hurts Mumbai in the chase with crucial wickets

Chasing such a huge score, the last thing Mumbai hoped was watching their captain, Rohit Sharma, being dismissed cheaply. And the weapon for LSG was Avesh Khan, whom they bagged in the auction for a whooping INR 10 crores. Just on his fourth ball, he sent back the Indian captain for 6; it was the second time the Madhya Pradesh pacer got the better of Rohit who had scored just 11 off 13 balls.

Even though young Dewald Brevis smacked few boundaries off his bowling, Avesh had the last laugh getting rid of the batter with a full toss. In the powerplay, with those two wickets, he hurt Mumbai’s planning in the run chase.

Later, in his last over, Avesh got the better of Fabien Allen. The pacer finished his spell with 3-30 in his four crucial overs. He now has 11 wickets in 2022.

Jaydev Unadkat gets 2-32 against Lucknow Super Giants (Images ©BCCI/IPL)

Jaydev Unadkat put up an all-round show in a losing contest

In a game where 380 runs had come off the blade in 40 overs, Jaydev Unadkat finished his quota of four overs with figures of 2-32 bowling in the difficult phases of the game.

The left-handed pacer from Saurashtra, whom Mumbai picked for INR 1.30 crores in the IPL auction, didn’t start well, going for 0-19 in his first two overs. But when he was called back in the 16th over, he straightaway dismissed Marcus Stoinis. It was the second time he got the better of the Australian all-rounder who in reply had just 12 off 16 balls from Unadkat.

In the last over of the innings, Unadkat spent just four runs and earned the wicket of Deepak Hooda for the second time in IPL; even though Hooda had scored at a strike rate of over 170 against the left arm bowler.

Coming late in the batting, Unadkat enjoyed his short time in the middle cracking 14 runs off just 6 balls thanks to couple of sixes and one boundary. Although it wasn’t enough as Mumbai lost their sixth consecutive game by 18 runs.

Read More: IPL 2022, MI vs PBKS, Top Performances: Mayank 52, Dhawan 70, Rabada's 19th over prove fatal for MI

IPL 2022 Points Table

IPL 2022 Points Table, Lucknow move to top 2

What’s to come

The Sunday blockbuster will see Sunrisers Hyderabad taking on the Punjab Kings at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai before Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings locking horns at the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Stadium in Pune in the evening.

Here are some of the top twitter reactions from LSG vs MI game, IPL 2022:

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