Super Stoinis breaches Chepauk fortress
Stoinis, you beauty! What a match, what a knock and what a win.
We rode on Marcus Stoinis’ sensational maiden century in the Indian Premier League (IPL) to beat Chennai Super Kings by six wickets at Chepauk on Tuesday.
Set a target of 211 by CSK, we needed to execute a record run chase to pick up a crucial win on the night and despite losing our openers early, we did it in style.
The win also helped us do a double over the reigning champions and lifted us up to the fourth spot in the IPL 2024 points table with 10 points from eight matches.
Gaikwad-Dube takes CSK past 200
We won the toss and elected to chase and Matt Henry got us off to a brilliant start.
After conceding just four in the first five bowlers, the Kiwi pacer pitched one seam up and the subtle swing forced an edge off Ajinkya Rahane. KL Rahul, the hero of our win over CSK at the Ekana last week, flew to his right and plucked the ball from the air at full stretch to give us our breakthrough.
Mohsin Khan could’ve removed Daryl Mitchell in the very next over but unfortunately, Yash Thakur couldn’t hang on to a difficult catch. Thakur, however, made amends and had Mitchell caught by Deepak Hooda at midwicket in the final over of the powerplay.
CSK skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ravindra Jadeja, who scored a half-century against us at the Ekana last week, came together and took them past 100. It was clear we needed to separate the two and Mohsin Khan heeded the call, sending Jaddu back with a well-directed bouncer.
However, a century partnership between Ruturaj (108* off 60) and Shivam Dube (66 off 27) took CSK to 210/4 after their allotted 20 overs. MS Dhoni ended their innings with a boundary.
Stoinis steals the show at Chepauk
Our chase didn’t get off to the best of starts as we lost Quinton de Kock in the first over itself without any runs on the board. KL (16 off 14) got some classy hits in but was caught by Gaikwad while trying to go after Mustafizur Rahman.
With a daunting total in front of us and having lost both our openers with just 33 on the scoreboard, we seemed to be on the backfoot. However, Marcus Stoinis, promoted to No. 3 for the night, wasn’t.
The Australian picked his chances and played a cautious yet aggressive innings to keep us in the hunt. He first put on 55 runs with Devdutt Padikkal to steady our ship.
After Matheesha Pathirana castled Padikkal, Stoinis joined forces with Nicky P to take us past 100 in the 13th over. The duo then slowly started to step on the pedal.
The two, batting masterfully, took Mustafizur for 13 in the 15th over before hammering Shardul Thakur for 20 in the 16th, leaving us with a very manageable 54 to get from the last four overs.
Nicky P, however, was holed up in the deep off Pathirana in the very next over, bringing Deepak Hooda out in the middle. Stoinis, meanwhile, kept going at the other end and reached his maiden IPL century in just 56 deliveries.
With 32 needed from the last two, Stoinis and Hooda combined to take Pathirana for 15 in the penultimate over, leaving us with 17 to get from the final off Mustafizur.
Super Stoinis stepped up once again and started the over with a six and followed up with a four straight down the ground. The next delivery, also a no ball, disappeared for another four and so did the free hit as we cruised past the finish line with three balls to spare.
Stoinis’ masterful unbeaten 124 of 63 featured 13 boundaries and six maximums. Hooda, too, played his part in the record win with a quickfire 17 off six.
What next for the Super Giants?
We’ll be back home to face league leaders Rajasthan Royals this Saturday.
Brief Scores: Chennai Super Kings 210/4 in 20 overs (Ruturaj Gaikwad 108, Matt Henry 1/28) lost to Lucknow Super Giants 213/4 in 19.3 overs (Marcus Stoinis 124; Matheesha Pathirana 2/35) by six wickets.
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