LSG defeated MI by 36 runs after KL Rahul's hundred.
Mumbai Indians (MI)'s wretched run in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 season continued after Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) defeated them by 36 runs at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. MI have now extended their record of most defeats from the start of an IPL season to 8.
MI captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and chose to bowl first despite the recent results favoring sides batting first on the ground. On what was a slightly difficult pitch to time the ball on, LSG captain KL Rahul played a sublime knock as he made 103*, his second ton of the season against the same opposition. He now has three IPL hundreds against MI, and four overall.
No other LSG batter found it easy to adjust to the pace of the pitch as they posted a total of 168/6, which at the time seemed a bit below par. Kieron Pollard and Riley Meredith took two wickets each.
For MI, Rohit Sharma (39) started well but Ishan Kishan struggled as he could only score 8 off 20 balls. Dewald Brevis came and went after scoring 3 and then Rohit too tell as MI quickly lost the momentum they had gained at the start of the innings courtesy Rohit. After that only young Tilak Varma (38) could put up a challenge as MI finished at 132/8 to lose the game by 36 runs.
Lot was expected of Kieron Pollard, but his ordinary season with the bat continued as he fell for 19 off 20 balls to Krunal Pandya (3/19) in the final over. They are extremely good friends having spent a lot of time together at MI before this season, and incidentally both dismissed each other in the game.
As Pollard walked off in disappointment, Krunal jumped upon him to give him a goodbye kiss on his head which surprised the Trinidadian but he didn't react much and continued his walk back to the pavilion.
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MI are now out of the race for a spot in the playoffs but LSG with ten points from eight games are well in the race, as they sit fourth on the table currently.