Follow UsFourth game of the 15th edition of IPL and fourth win for the teams chasing. The new teams, Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants locked horns in the fourth match.
Winning the toss in his first game as captain, Hardik Pandya insisted Lucknow to bat and they were off to a rollicking start. Mohammed Shami with a jaffa, sent KL Rahul back to the pavilion in the first ball of the match. Later on, he added two more as he packed off Quinton de Kock and Manish Pandey inside the first six overs. Lucknow on the backfoot at 32/4 at the end of six, had two new heroes. Deepak Hooda and Ayush Badoni forged an 87-run partnership for the fifth wicket and propelled Lucknow to a fighting total of 158/6.
In reply, Gujarat suffered a similar fate as Shubman Gill walked towards the pavilion without troubling the scores. Vijay Shankar in the third over followed Gill as Dushmantha Chameera’s ripping Yorker knocked the off stump. Matthew Wade and Hardik 57-run partnership for the third to resurrect the innings. However, it was the partnership of 60 from 34 balls between Rahul Tewatia and David Miller for the fifth wicket that helped Gujarat seal their first win of IPL. Here are a few notable records from the match:
After a long interval
Wade has been one of the prolific run scorers for Australia in T20Is and for Hobart Hurricanes in the BBL. However, with numerous performances, Wade failed to get an IPL contract.
The last time Wade featured in an IPL match was in 2011 for DC against the now-defunct Pune Warriors. In the 2011 edition, Wade played three matches and scored only 22 runs and that was all of his IPL experience heading into the match in 2022. In between these two matches, Wade had to wait 10 years and 311 days to feature in an IPL match against. This is the longest span between appearances for a player in an IPL match.
Rahul finally suffers a duck as an opener
The Lucknow skipper has been one of the most consistent performers in the IPL, especially as an opener. In 63 innings as an opener, Rahul has scored over 2500 runs at an average of 52.3 and has scored a 50+ every 2.3 innings, a testimony of his consistency.
However, an unwanted record was registered to his name in Match 4. For the first time in those 63 innings as an opener, Rahul was dismissed for a duck. Overall, this was only his second duck in IPL. Co-incidentally, his first duck in IPL was also a golden duck.
Badoni impresses one and all
Just eight runs in one T20 innings, the experience of Badoni heading into his first match of IPL against a bowling line-up that consisted of Shami, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Aaron and Rashid Khan.
The big names of the opposition bowlers didn’t matter as the youngster scored a 50+ on his IPL debut. He slog swept Rashid for a six, slog swept Hardik for a six over mid-wicket and pulled to a 145+ pace delivery by Ferguson. He just did that in his first IPL match at the age of 22. By reaching a fifty on his IPL debut at the age of 22 years and 115 days, Badoni became the third youngest to a 50+ score on an IPL debut.
Rahul’s starting trouble in his captaincy
However good Rahul has been as a batter, his captaincy hasn’t been up to the mark. In the first match of the 2022 edition as well, Cahmeera had been the best bowler for Lucknow, but didn’t finish his full quota of four overs.
His starts to the captaincy haven’t been that great as well. Apart from the win in the only match he captained in First-class, in competitive tournaments and formats, his first impression has been poor. In the first match as Punjab Kings captain in 2020, he lost to Delhi Capitals. In his first match as captain in Tests and ODIs against South Africa, he lost in both. Adding salt to his injuries, he lost his first match for Lucknow as captain in IPL.
Mayhem in the last five
Gujarat team were in trouble at the start of the 16th over as they needed 69 runs to win. Tewatia, known for his finishing skills alongside Miller smashed 22 runs in the 16th over and followed it up by a 17-run over in the 17th. In the last three overs, they smashed 31 runs as the young Abhinav Manohar joined the party with a 7-ball 15.
In the last five overs, Gujarat smashed 70 runs for the loss of one wicket to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. In IPL, at the Wankhede, only once has there been more runs scored in the last five overs to win in a chase. Mumbai Indians against Sunrisers Hyderabad clubbed 71 runs in 2013 to win the game.