Rahul, de Kock help LSG overpower CSK by 8 wkts

Lucknow: K.L. Rahul and Quinton de Kock added 154 runs for the opening wicket as Lucknow Super Giants beat Chennai Super Kings by eight wickets in the highest successful run chase at Ekana Cricket Stadium here on Friday.

Chasing a modest target of 177, Lucknow openers Rahul and de Kock gave a good start and added 32 runs in the first four overs. After Deepak Chahar’s three-run first over, Tushar Deshpande was smashed for nine in the second over and LSG raced away to 32 runs in four overs.

With the talk around Rahul’s strike rate in T20s especially in IPL, the LSG skipper raced to 34 off 20 with some classy strokes and led his team to 54 for no loss in the Power-play, along with de Kock, for their joint second-best Power-play score of the season. LSG and Rahul would have gained loads of confidence with plenty of strokes that he scored playing the aggressive role in the chase. He has belted out his mighty pulls, classy drives, and perfectly timed pick-up shots to set up the chase nicely. Rahul was nicely placed on 46 off 27 and de Kock scored 34 off 27 balls after the end of nine overs. LSG were 84 for no loss after nine -- their best opening stands this IPL -- and they needed 93 off 66.

Rahul was dealing with boundaries. He first played a cut shot past Jadeja to reach his fifty, off 31 balls. It was his 35th half-century in the IPL. Next ball, he sliced it just wide of point for another four, and that brought up LSG's 100. As many as 14 runs came off Jadeja's third over and CSK’s eleventh. LSG were 103 after 11 and need 74 off 54.

Until this match, CSK were the stranglers of the middle overs in this IPL, something that they showed in their last game against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede.

Brief scores:

Chennai Super Kings 176/6 in 20 overs (Ravindra Jadeja 57 not out, Ajinkya Rahane 36; Krunal Pandya 2-16, Marcus Stoinis 1-7) lost to Lucknow Super Giants 180/2 in 19 overs (K.L. Rahul 82, Quinton de Kock 54; Matheesa Pathirana 1-19, Mustafizur Rahman 1-43) by eight wickets.