IPL 2024: With a century from Stoinis surpassing Gaikwad’s ton, LSG defeats CSK by six wickets

In their IPL encounter here on Tuesday, Marcus Stoinis hit a booming undefeated hundred, the ideal counterpoint to Ruturaj Gaikwad’s elegant century, and led the Lucknow Super Giants to an incredible six-wicket victory against the Chennai Super Kings.

With Stoinis (124, 63b, 13×4, 6×6), the Super Giants were able to stage the greatest chase in IPL history at the Chepauk, reaching 213 for four.

With 104 runs contributed during the fourth-wicket partnership, Gaikwad (108, 60b, 12×4, 3×6) and Shivam Dube (66, 27b, 3×4, 7×6) led the Super Kings to a challenging 210 for four.

Because they had already defeated Chennai in the game at Ekana Stadium a few days before, LSG also achieved a unique victory against the team on the road and at home.

Stoinis’s innings were in stark contrast to Gaikwad’s well executed performance.

The 6’1″ Australian made no attempt to disguise the might of his body as he crushed many fours and sixes. His maximum off bowler, Mustafizur Rahman, who had previously easily devoured LSG captain KL Rahul, was the highlight of the innings.

Rahman delivered an off-cutter that was a little bit fuller on the off-stump, but Stoinis struck a six with a physics-defying straight crunch over the bowlers’ heads.

Conversely, Pooran was in full swing from the first ball, in part because to the linear 55-run partnership between Stoinis and a battling Devdutt Padikkal (13, 19b), whose ordeal was terminated when Pathirana struck a blistering 151 kmph blow to uproot the batter’s leg stump.

It meant that Pooran, who scored 70 runs alongside Stoinis, could not afford to take his time getting comfortable. However, he proved to be up to the challenge, hitting two sixes and a four off Shardul Thakur in the 16th over.

After bowler Matheesha Pathirana dismissed Pooran, it was up to Stoinis to take LSG home. He did it by taking 15 runs off the 19th over that the Lankan delivered.

With three balls remaining, Stoinis completed the task of scoring 17 runs off the last over Rahman bowled, destroying the Bangladeshi left-arm fast for 6, 4, 4 (+1NB), and 4.

Earlier, the Super Kings innings gained momentum thanks to Gaikwad and Dube, after a very quiet Power Play (49/2) and middle passage.

For that score, the CSK should be most grateful to Gaikwad, who played an innings that was a connoisseur’s joy. Ajinkya Rahane left the game early after being well caught by stumper KL Rahul from Matt Henry.

This IPL, batting has mostly involved slamming the ball far and wide, but Gaikwad chose a more traditional approach by timing the ball through the gaps for fours.

Even though there were no fours in his first fifty, he was still able to maintain a strike rate over 180 at that time.

With only 28 balls, the fifty was achieved. The night’s most impressive hit came from Gaikwad, who took a slice-cut off bowler Mohsin Khan and beat the point fielder for a boundary.

But he also concentrated on building productive partnerships with his colleagues, as seen by the 45 runs he scored with Daryl Mitchell and the 52 he scored with Ravindra Jadeja (17).

Still, Mitchell (11), who was dumped on four, and Jadeja would have regretted not being able to provide a far more significant blow.

Even though Gaikwad was the primary player in such pairings, whenever Dube reached the crease, some of the strain was relieved from him.

In the 13th over against Stoinis, the left-hander struck several strong balls across the ground and, not unexpectedly, got CSK’s first six of the innings.

In the 45th ball he faced, Gaikwad quickly struck the first six of his innings, dragging Stoinis’ half-tracker over mid-wicket.

But Dube moved into his six-hitting persona with ease, and bowler Yash Thakur took the brunt of the left-hander’s three consecutive sixes.

After making 99 runs in the 18th over after a six off Thakur over extra cover, Gaikwad added 16 runs in the following over off the same bowler to achieve his second IPL hundred with a four.

In only 46 balls, Gaikwad and Dube reached their partnership score of 100. PTI