IPL 2023: Krunal Pandya Stars With Three-fer As Lucknow Restrict Hyderabad To 121/8

Left-arm spin all-rounder Krunal Pandya starred with a three-fer as Lucknow Super Giants restricted Sunrisers Hyderabad to a modest 121/8 on a sluggish black-soil pitch at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium here on Friday.

Krunal was undoubtedly the pick of the bowlers for Lucknow, constantly attacking the stumps to pick a tidy 3-18 in his four overs. Veteran leg-spinner Amit Mishra took 2-23 while Ravi Bishnoi and Yash Thakur chipped in with a scalp each.

Lucknow drew first blood in the third over as Mayank Agarwal went for an uppish drive against Krunal, but he was undone by the flight and ended up giving a tame chip to cover. Anmolpreet Singh got some boundaries against spinners as well as Thakur with a lovely punch, sweep and chip over mid-off.

Though Anmolpreet survived an lbw appeal off Thakur in the final over of Power-play, he didn't have the same luck in the eighth over as Krunal trapped him lbw with a flatter and quicker delivery on stumps going past the bat to hit the back pad.

On the very next ball, Pandya's tossed-up delivery kept low and skidded past Aiden Markram's bat to rattle his off-stump, sending the SRH skipper back for a golden duck.

Bishnoi entered the wicket-takers column by setting up Harry Brook with three consecutive quick googlies before the leg-break was slipped in to beat an advancing Brook on the outside edge and have him stumped easily.

Rahul Tripathi and Washington Sundar went on the defensive to stitch a 39-run partnership off 50 balls. Tripathi got some boundaries through the off-side, including off a reverse sweep, to give the score a push.

But in a bid to ramp off Thakur in the 18th over, Tripathi was caught by Mishra at short third man, diving full length to his left to grab a stunning catch with both hands. In the next over, Mishra had Sundar and Adil Rashid holing out to long-on and long-off respectively.

It took Abdul Samad's cameo of 21 off 10 balls, including two sixes off Jaydev Unadkat in the final over, to help SRH cross 120-mark on a slow and low pitch. 

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