Badoni saved the shame of Lucknow in the canceled match due to rain
The Indian Premier League match between Chennai Super Kings and Lucknow Supergiants got washed out here on Wednesday. The match had to be stopped due to rain during the last over of Lucknow Supergiants’ innings and even after that it continued to rain intermittently due to which the match could not be resumed. Both the teams shared one point each from this match. This is the first match in the current season of IPL which had to be stopped midway due to rain. Both the teams now have an identical 11 points from 10 matches. Lucknow’s team is second in the table while Chennai is third due to better net run rate.
The cut-off time for the start of the five-over contest in the second innings was 7.28 pm but due to rain and wet ground, the umpires decided to call off the match before its half. Earlier, the toss was delayed at the half due to rain while the start of the innings was delayed by 15 minutes. However, on a difficult pitch for batting, Ayush Badoni saved Lucknow’s shame by playing an unbeaten innings of 59 runs. With his innings, the team scored 125 runs for seven wickets till the game was stopped due to rain. On a pitch where other batsmen were struggling to score runs, Badoni hit two fours and four sixes in his 33-ball innings.
He shared a 59-run partnership for the sixth wicket with Nicholas Pooran to take the team to a challenging score. Pooran could only score 20 runs in 31 balls. The team added 63 runs from 15th to 19th over. Moin Ali, Mahish Teekshana and Mathish Pathirana took two wickets each for Chennai. Moeen conceded just 13 runs in four overs while Teekshana conceded 37 runs in the same over. Pathirana gave away 22 runs in 3.2 overs. Ravindra Jadeja took one wicket for 11 runs in three overs. In the absence of regular skipper Lokesh Rahul, the Lucknow Supergiants batsmen looked under pressure from the start.
The team hit only three fours in the power play and lost three wickets. In the fourth over, Moin Ali trapped Kyle Myers (14) in his spin for the second time in the current season, while in the sixth over, Mahesh Teekshana made Manan Vohra (10) and captain Krunal Pandya (0) go on consecutive balls. Marcus Stoinis (six) hit a four as soon as he came to the crease, due to which the team’s score was 31 for three in the powerplay. Ravindra Jadeja brought great success to Chennai by bowling Stoinis in the next over. Even after this, the spinners of Chennai kept the screws tight and in an attempt to speed up the run rate, Karan Sharma (nine runs) was caught by Moeen’s ball.
Ayush Badoni hit the first six of the match against Teekshana in the 15th over. This was the first boundary for the team after 49 balls. He also hit the bowler in the 17th over after welcoming the bowler with a six. Taking a single off the next ball, he completed a 45-ball half-century partnership with Nicholas Pooran. Lucknow completed a century in the next over but in an attempt to hit a big shot off Mahish Pathirana, Puran (20 runs) returned to the pavilion by giving Moin a catch. Badoni completed his half-century in 30 balls by hitting a six against Deepak in the 19th over. He hit another six off the last ball of the over to reach 125 runs. In the last over, Pathirana got the second breakthrough by dismissing Krishnappa Gautam (one run). After this the players had to leave the field due to rain.
