IPL 2022: KL Rahul, captain of the Lucknow Super Giants, scored a superb century against the Mumbai Indians in his 100th IPL match.
KL In his 100th Indian Premier League (IPL) game, Rahul made batting look easy with a sparkling 56-ball century as Lucknow Super Giants thrashed Mumbai Indians for 199 all out at the Brabourne Stadium on Saturday. Kumar Rahul (103 not out off 60 balls) hammered nine fours and five sixes to keep up his impressive record against Mumbai Indians. With Quinton de Kock (24 off 13 balls), Manish Pandey (38 off 29 balls), and Deepak Hooda (15 off 8 balls) for the fourth wicket, he contributed 52 runs to his hundred.
Rahul’s imperious form didn’t help matters, as MI’s fielding was possibly their worst in the last four to five seasons.
Rohit Sharma, the tournament’s most successful skipper, seemed completely out of ideas as his tactic of deploying an additional spinner in left-arm orthodox Fabian Allen (1/46 in 4 overs) didn’t quite work out in the field of play.
Despite Jasprit Bumrah’s heroics (0/24 in 4 overs), he alone cannot save the team from the calamity that is this season.
What other bowler would the MI captain have started with if he knew Lucknow captain Tilak Varma was a master of the slow bowler?
When it came to the six powerplay innings, six different bowlers were utilized, and de Kock should be the one to blame for not taking advantage of the shirtfront-like track.
To make matters worse, Rahul was forced to play cuts and pulls as well as a slog sweep because of the abundance of short balls. He also had to contend with some delicious drives when anything was pitched up.
As a result, MI was on the verge of collapse, and the likes of Jaydev Unadkat (2/32 in 4 overs), Tymal Mills (0/54 in 3 overs), and Murugan Ashwin (1/33 in 4 overs) tried their best but were unable to help.
Ashwin threw a nice googly, and Stoinis smashed him for the most sixes in his career. Rahul hit a six behind square leg off Allen’s wicket-to-wicket delivery.
On a bad outfield day where India could not cut boundaries even after getting hold of the ball helped Rahul and company score 60 runs between overs 13 and 16, the five-time champions could not help Rahul and company’s cause.
Trent Boult, Krunal Pandya, and Rahul Chahar are missing from MI’s team, and acquiring 16 middle-of-the-road players for just 18 crores hasn’t worked out well thus far.
