Stoinis leads Lucknow’s playoffs charge

PTI

Lucknow, April 30

Marcus Stoinis made a composed fifty to complement the splendid effort of the bowlers as Lucknow Super Giants strengthened their chances of a playoffs berth with a nervy four-wicket win over Mumbai Indians in the IPL here today.

Losing early wickets in the powerplay is tough to recover from. The wicket was good... the ball was there to be hit and we just missed, that sort of season for us so far. — Hardik Pandya, MI Captain

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28 MI managed just 28 in the first six overs, the second-lowest powerplay score of this IPL

MI's top-order came a cropper as they stuttered to a below-par 144/7, with contributions from Nehal Wadhera (46), Ishan Kishan (32) and Tim David (35 not out).

In reply, Stoinis scored a 45-ball 62, studded with seven hits to the fence and two sixes, but once he was gone LSG survived some anxious moments before getting home with four balls to spare.

With their sixth win in 10 games, LSG climbed to the third spot in the standings. MI, on the other hand, slumped to their seventh loss in 10 games to remain ninth.

LSG made a watchful start to their chase after Nuwan Thushara struck with his fourth ball to remove impact sub Arshin Kulkarni for a duck on his IPL debut.

Stoinis cracked two back-to-back boundaries off Gerald Coetzee, who ended up conceding 15 in his first over. KL Rahul (28 off 22) too joined the party, slamming three fours and a six to take 20 runs off Thushara.

Stoinis then whacked Bumrah over long off as LSG reached 52 in the powerplay.

Mohammed Nabi held on to a skier at the boundary line as Hardik Pandya produced a breakthrough, removing Rahul. Stoinis, however, kept going strong as he and Deepak Hooda (18) added 40 off 35 balls to take LSG close to 100.

Earlier, MI dug a hole for themselves by losing four wickets in the powerplay. The visitors just couldn't recover despite a 53-run fifth-wicket stand between Wadhera and Kishan.

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