MATCH STORIES
Follow UsYou take one look at Marcus Peter Stoinis, and there’s no way you’ll say he’s a cricketer. He’s built like the Hulk but with the looks of a Thor. And then, when he starts hitting the ball with his big muscles straining the jersey on his arms, you wonder why he isn’t the most destructive and popular T20 cricketer Australia has ever produced.
In the Indian Premier League (IPL), too, before joining the new Lucknow Super Giants franchise in the 2022 season, he was striking at 138.8, with a highest score of 65 and just three 50-plus scores. That’s still a decent record for a batter who bats down the order and was used in that exact role by his previous IPL franchises, Delhi Capitals, Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Punjab Kings.
However, you don’t buy Stoinis the batter on your side just to do a supporting job. You pick him because you want him to dictate terms in the middle order with his big hitting, but you also want someone whose defence can be trusted enough to see you through the tricky middle-overs phase.
For Australia, he has largely played as a finisher. One of his best innings came during the 2021 T20 World Cup when he put up a remarkable 81-run stand with Matthew Wade in the semi-final against Pakistan after Australia had fallen in a pit at 96 for 5, chasing 177.
Stoinis has done the role of an accelerating anchor with varying degrees of success for many teams. However, the way he has come good for LSG, he has shown that he can do this role at a much higher consistency and definitely, a much better impact.
Today (April 7), 58 off 43 deliveries on a tricky Lucknow track exemplified what his best can look like.
He came into bat during the third over of the powerplay today after Umesh Yadav proved his credentials as a powerplay bowler with wickets of Quinton de Kock and Devdutt Padikkal in quick succession. Just like the trend has been in his T20 career so far, he started off slow but benefited early from a five-run overthrow.
The Titans' spinners Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad kept bowling on a tight line and length, and the pitch aided their early introduction into the game by offering them some good grip and turn. In fact, today against GT, he scored only 15 runs in 20 balls against spin and smacked 43 off 23 against pace at a strike rate of 187, and all his boundaries came against them.
Stoinis and KL Rahul had understood that on a pitch like this, they had to bat long and take calculated risks. They hardly tried to score more than one boundary per over, and that also came against pace. That allowed them to put up a 73-run partnership. Although KL’s 33 off 31, and a circumspect approach from Stoinis ensured that those 73 runs took 62 balls.
However, once KL was out, he began his onslaught against Darshan Nalkande by hitting him for two sixes and completing his fifty in the 15th over. But in attempting another six, Stoinis' valiant knock finally ended.
A late onslaught from Nicholas Pooran and Ayush Badoni ensured that LSG reached 163/5.
This season, he has scored 104 runs in four innings at a strike rate of 140.5. Before this game, he was nearly averaging 30 at a strike rate of 150. An innings like today’s, combined with his manner of batting this season, allows him to manage the run rate in the middle overs with his accelerated anchoring and then go big in the last overs along with Pooran and others.
That’s a perfect role for someone of Stoinis’s ability and experience, and as a result, four of his eight half-centuries in the IPL have come for LSG, and his strike rate is the highest in the IPL while playing for them.
LSG have found the way to get the best out of him, and with the World Cup coming up soon in the Caribbean and the USA, there can’t be a better time for the best version of Marcus Stoinis to make an appearance.
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