Mumbai Indians beat Lucknow Super Giants in Eliminator

CHENNAI: Mumbai Indians outplayed Lucknow Super Giants by 81 runs in the Eliminator clash of IPL 2023 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, here on Wednesday.

Opting tob bat first, Impact player Nehal Wadhera's vital late blitz 23 off 12 balls, which included hitting 14 runs in the final over, took Mumbai Indians to a challenging 182/8.

Pacer Akash Madhwal bowled brilliently to restrict Lucknow Super Giants at just 101 runs in 16.3 overs. The 29-year-old pacer took 5 wickets for 5 runs in 3.3 overs. Marcus Stoinis hit 40 runs from 27 balls. They lost last 7 wickets in 32 runs.

Earlier, at one point, Mumbai looked all set for a 200-plus total, as they raced to 98/2 at half-way mark. But Naveen-ul-Haq halted Mumbai's charge by using his slower deliveries to pick 4/38, with Yash Thakur and Mohsin Khan taking 3/34 and 1/24 respectively.

Apart from Wadhera's lusty hits at the end, Cameron Green and Suryakumar Yadav chipped in with 41 and 33 respectively, while Tilak Varma hit a 22-ball 26 for Mumbai.

Electing to bat first, Mumbai were off to a flying start against spin from Krunal Pandya and Krishnappa Gowtham. Ishan Kishan used late-cut twice while steering once to collect three boundaries through third man region while Rohit smacked high over long-on for six and went down on one knee to sweep for four.

Lucknow gained success via pace when Rohit danced out of his crease to loft, but hit straight to extra cover off Naveen. Green was up and running immediately with a cut for four and was lucky in getting another boundary off an outside edge.

In the next over, Kishan fell after nicking behind while trying to cut off Thakur. But Green feasted on full and short balls from Krunal to hit three beautiful boundaries, followed by timing the drive in the gap off him between mid-off and cover for another four.

Suryakumar, who got off the mark with a ramp off Thakur for six in the power-play, repeated the shot off Mohsin for the same result, with Green pulling the pacer ferociously for another maximum.

Naveen brought out the knockout punch in the 11th over -- an off cutter foxed Suryakumar and got him to hole out to long-off, followed by another slower delivery castling Green through the gate. It caused a slowdown as Mumbai got only 26 runs off the next four overs, though Tilak launched Ravi Bishnoi for a huge six over deep mid-wicket.

Wadhera swept Thakur twice for fours and pulled a six over deep square leg to take Mumbai above 180 in the final over, before slicing to deep point on the last ball of the innings.

Brief Scores: Mumbai Indians 182/8 in 20 overs (Cameron Green 41, Suryakumar Yadav 33; Naveen-ul-Haq 4/38, Yash Thakur 3/34) beat Lucknow Super Giants 101/10 in 16.3 overs (Stoinis 40, Akash Madhwal 5/5).

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