Mumbai Indians 229 for 4 (Rohit 84, Rickelton 83, Siddharth 2-47) beat Lucknow Super Giants 228 for 5 (Pooran 63, Marsh 44, Bosch 2-20) by six wickets
This was the highest successful chase at the Wankhede Stadium, bettering the 220 MI had chased down against Kolkata Knight Riders to win their season-opener.
Rickelton, who struck 123 not out in his previous innings at the Wankhede last week against Sunrisers Hyderabad, made 83 off 32 in a 143-run opening stand. Rohit, who raised his half-century in 27 balls, made 84 off 44. By the time he was out mistiming an attempted pick-up shot over short fine leg, MI’s equation had come down to 52 off 36.
In the end, MI overturned a sequence of three straight losses; LSG, meanwhile, slumped to their sixth straight loss, which left them firmly rooted to the bottom of the points table.
Rohit magic
He got off the mark with a streaky slash over the leaping slip fielder. Then, he was beaten off consecutive Mohsin Khan deliveries in the fourth over. It didn’t get any easier when he just about managed to squeeze out a pinpoint yorker from Prince Yadav in an excellent fifth over that went for just six. And then the floodgates opened.
A frazzled Avesh Khan disappeared for 4, 4, 6, 6 in a poor first over as MI ended the powerplay 71 for 0. By then, Rohit was imperiously flicking full-tosses, backing away and dispatching length balls over cover and slicing them wide of point.
M Siddharth, LSG’s impact sub, then came under Rohit’s wheel – feeding him deliveries into his swinging arc. He launched one of these over long-on to bring up his half-century off 27 balls. The landmark was merely incidental because, by now, Rohit was in his zone.
Even Mohammed Shami wasn’t spared; at one point he was left staring at the pitch, wondering what he’d done wrong. A well-executed bumper was mercilessly pulled to the backward square leg boundary. And then he went full and straight and ended up bowling a low full toss – almost yorker-length – that was shovelled for a leg-side six. Rohit’s knock ended when he swept Siddharth straight to short fine leg in the 14th over.
Rickelton sets the tempo
Rickelton’s first six came in the second over, a no-fuss, no-look pick-up six over square leg, and the big hits just kept coming. He lofted Shami through the line over long-off, and put away full-tosses from Avesh and Siddharth, depositing them behind square on the leg side. Rickelton charged to his half-century off just 22 balls, with 40 of those runs coming in boundaries.
Rickelton took a particular liking to Siddharth, who kept floating them up in trying to swerve his arm ball away from his hitting arc. His second over, the ninth of the innings, got picked away for 23. Rickelton’s party ended a couple of overs later when he fell to Mohsin after having hit him for two sixes in the same over. An attempt to go over cover was hit flat to the man at the edge of the ring. By then, the openers had added 143.
Nicky P tees off
That this was a big chase was primarily down to Pooran. Promoted to No. 3, from where he had scored a majority of his 524 runs last season, he hit three sixes off Will Jacks in the fifth over – all on the leg side – to kickstart his innings.
The ferocity of his ball-striking made you wonder if this was the same batter who had struggled for any kind of batting rhythm through this season – coming into this game, his strike rate of 81.18 was the lowest among all batters who had faced at least 50 balls this season.
He had hit four sixes combined in eight games. He hit twice as many on Monday alone, in an incredible exhibition of clean, fearless hitting. He raised his fifty off 16 balls – with a strike over long-off off Deepak Chahar – and looked good for plenty more until a Corbin Bosch bouncer got big on him. One brought two as Bosch also had the set Mitch Marsh pull one straight to deep midwicket.
Pant’s misery continues
Reprieved even before he was off the mark – an inside-edge didn’t carry to Rickelton – Rishabh Pant couldn’t capitalise as he was soon dismissed for 15. Then, debutant Akshat Raghuwanshi – who replaced Mukul Choudhary in LSG’s XI – walloped his first ball for six before being dismissed by Raghu Sharma for his first IPL wicket.
At one point, LSG were staring at the possibility of having to summon a batter as their Impact Player because they kept losing wickets. Himmat Singh was reprieved on 2 when Jasprit Bumrah got him to edge to the keeper off a no-ball. He went on to finish unbeaten on 40 off 31, and Aiden Markram, pushed back to No. 5, on 31 off 25.
Yet, with the last five overs going for just 53, there was a sense LSG left a few runs out there. As it turned out, it’s possible even those extra runs may have not been enough against a rampant MI line-up.
Shashank Kishore is a senior correspondent at ESPNcricinfo
