Lucknow Super Giants prevail over Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL

Riding on a superb 70 off 26 balls by Nicholas Pooran, Lucknow Super Giants defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by five wickets in an IPL match here on Thursday. Mitchell Marsh also scored a half-century.

Earlier, Shardul Thakur continued his dream comeback with a four-wicket haul to help Lucknow Super Giants restrict a power-packed Sunrisers Hyderabad to 190 for nine.

After LSG opted to bowl, Shardul (4/34) gave them a fiery start, removing Abhishek Sharma and last-match centurion Ishan Kishan in consecutive balls in the third over.

Shardul sent packing Sharma with a short delivery before getting Ishan Kishan caught behind off an innocuous delivery down the leg side.

Travis Head (47 off 28), however, looked in ominous form as he took the attack to the opposition and used his brute power to deal in boundaries and sixes.

Head was particularly brutal against Avesh, who sprayed the ball on both sides, with the Australian hitting him for two sixes and one four to pick up 18 runs in the fourth over.

Head, however, was lucky as he got two reprieves.

Head skied Ravi Bishnoi's first ball down the ground, and Pooran stationed at long-on had all the time in the world to get under the ball and take a simple catch but the West Indian put it down.

The missed chance proved costly as Head slammed Bishnoi over covers for a maximum.

Bishnoi had another chance to claim the wicket of Head in the fifth ball of the sixth over but he failed to latch on to a difficult return catch.

But Head's luck finally ran out when fast bowler Prince Yadav disturbed his timbers to pick up his first IPL wicket.

Henrich Klaasen (26 off 17) was looking dangerous but got out in a bizarre fashion, run out by Yadav off his own bowling as a straight drive from Nitish Reddy ricocheted on to the stumps from the bowler’s follow-through.

Young Aniket Verma played a 13-ball 36-run cameo that included five sixes but fell to leg-spinner Disvesh Rathi, caught by David Miller.

SRH skipper Pat Cummins (18 off 4) hit three sixes of his first three balls before departing.