IPL 2022, LSG vs SRH, Top Performances: Avesh Khan's fiery 4-24 helps Lucknow to second straight win

IPL 2022, LSG vs SRH, Top Performances: Avesh Khan's 4-24, KL Rahul's 68 and Deepak Hooda's 51 are the top three performances.

Lucknow Super Giants beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 12 runs (Images ©BCCI/IPL)

Brief Scores: LSG 169 for 7 (Rahul 68, Hooda 51, Natarajan 26/2) beat SRH 157 for 9 (Tripathi 44, Pooran 34, Avesh 24/4, Holder 34/3, Krunal 27/2) by 12 runs

Player of the match: Avesh Khan for 4-24

Kane Williamson-led Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) were at odds with KL Rahul-led Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) after the former lost their first game against Rajasthan Royals (RR) in this season of Indian Premier League (IPL).

This will be the first encounter between these two teams in IPL as LSG are a new franchise who were added in IPL this year only.

Lucknow Super Giants defeat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 12 runs

Sunrisers won the toss and opted to field first. They kept the same eleven as the previous game. LSG replaced pacer Dushmantha Chameera with Caribbean all-rounder Jason Holder.

Skipper KL Rahul and wicketkeeper-batter Quinton de Kock opened the batting for LSG. However, de Kock lost his wicket early on a personal score of 1 against spinner Washington Sunder. He miscued and gave a straight catch to Williamson at cover. Also, Sunder bamboozled previous match hero Evin Lewis to trap him plumb in front of the stumps on a personal score of just one.

Next batter Manish Pandey also got out off Romario Shepherd after scoring only 11 runs off 10 deliveries. Rahul and Deepak Hooda redeemed their side by adding 87 runs for the fourth wicket. Due to these knocks, LSG amassed 169 runs in 20 overs.

While chasing a target of 170 runs, Lucknow pacer Avesh Khan cleaned up both openers within the first five overs of the innings. Rahul Tripathi and Nicholas Pooran played quickfire knocks but they could not help their side to reach the target due to breathtaking bowling spells by Avesh Khan and Jason Holder.

LSG reached the fifth position in the IPL points table with this win, whereas Sunrisers hit the bottom due to this loss.

Let’s scan the top three performances from the LSG vs SRH game, IPL 2022:

Deepak Hooda, KL Rahul added 87 runs for the 4th wicket for LSG (Images ©BCCI/IPL)

Deepak Hooda continued his form with another fifty

LSG lost three key wickets of de Kock, Evin Lewis and Manish Pandey in the first five overs. In this beggarly condition of 27 for three, all-rounder Deepak Hooda and skipper Rahul rescued their side by scoring individual fifties. Especially, Hooda put pressure back on the opponent side with his merciless hitting off pacer Umran Malik. He hammered a four and a huge six off Malik in an over. After hitting one six off Caribbean pacer Romario Shepherd, Hooda targeted Malik again to smash two fours and one six in an over.

The 26-year-old all-rounder completed his second fifty in this season of IPL in just 31 deliveries. Shepherd dismissed Hooda immediately after the latter completed his half-century. Hooda made 51 runs off 33 deliveries with the help of three fours and three monumental sixes to help his side post a huge total on the scoreboard.

Read More: IPL 2022, RR vs SRH, Top Performances: Samson, Hetmyer destroy SRH with 200+ SRs; Chahal picks 3

KL Rahul scores fifty (68 runs) for Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) (Images ©BCCI/IPL)

Skipper KL Rahul carries Lucknow’s innings on his shoulders

After losing three quick wickets earlier in the innings, the onus was on Lokesh Rahul to bail out the team from such a shoddy state. Along with Hooda, Rahul stitched a crucial partnership of 87 runs. He pummelled two back-to-back boundaries off inexperienced pacer Malik to increase the run rate.

When Hooda went berserk against the opponent bowling, Rahul was happy to play second fiddle to his aggressive partner. After Hooda was dismissed in the 16th over, Rahul completed his 28th IPL half-century and pounced on the bowling of spinner Sunder to smash two fours and one huge six over mid-wicket.

After helping his side reach over 140, Rahul went into attacking mode in the death overs. However, pacer Thangarasu Natarajan trapped him LBW in the 19th over. Rahul’s knock of 68 runs off 50 balls was studded with six boundaries and one six. Due to his sensible knock, Lucknow could post a good total on the scoreboard.

Read More: IPL 2022, GT vs LSG, Top Performances: Shami's 3-25, Tewatia's 40*(24) hand Titans maiden win

Avesh Khan's 4-24 helps Lucknow to second straight win (Images ©BCCI_IPL)

Avesh Khan breaks the back of Sunrisers' batting order

Sunrisers opener Williamson was looking in good touch today. He smoked a huge six over the short fine leg boundary off pacer Jason holder. However, Avesh Khan sent him packing from the ground, as Andrew Tye grabbed his catch at short fine leg.

The Madhya Pradesh pacer bagged the wicket of second opener Abhishek Sharma with a slower delivery. Sharma sliced the ball straight towards Manish Pandey at cover. These two wickets by Avesh early in the innings left Sunrisers in a state of disarray.

Later in the innings when Sunrisers were well placed on 137 for four in 17 overs, requiring just 33 runs to win, Avesh returned for his last spell and dismissed two batters on back-to-back deliveries. He removed well-settled explosive batter Nicholas Pooran to puncture the opponent’s chase. Pooran made 34 runs off just 24 deliveries in his brisk knock. On the next delivery, Avesh scalped all-rounder Abdul Samad on duck to complete his four-wicket haul. He registered his best bowling figures in IPL – 24/4 - to help his side get their second straight win.

What’s to come

Rajasthan Royals (RR) will play against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on April 4. The match is scheduled to begin at 19:30 hours IST.

Here are some of the Top Twitter reactions from LSG vs SRH game, IPL 2022:

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