Bangalore captain Faf du Plessis smacked 96 and right-arm fast bowler Josh Hazlewood took 4/25 from his 4 overs to power their side to and18-run victory over Lucknow in the Match No 31 of the ongoing Indian T20 Cricket League 2022 on Tuesday night.
Faf du Plessis not only top scored from either teams in the contest played at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Tuesday night, but also guided Bangalore to a formidable total of 183/6 from their 20 overs, in reply to which Lucknow could manage only 163/8 with Krunal Pandya top scoring with 42 and their captain KL Rahul making 30.
Bangalore were off to a poor start when Sri Lanka fast bowler Dushmantha Chameera, who has been inconsistent to say the least in the tournament so far, struck twice in the early stages of the match to get rid of the wicketkeeper-batsman Anuj Rawat for 4 and sent back the former Bangalore captain V Kohlii for a first-ball duck.
With his team under pressure early on, Faf du Plessis dropped the anchor to steer his side out of trouble and put them in a commanding position by stitching several partnerships along the way, that were instrumental in them reaching a total which was beyond the reach of the Lucknow side.
Faf du Plessis added 37 runs from 26 balls with Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell for the third wicket, and even though his fourth-wicket stand with Suyash Prabhudessai was of only 18 runs, the right-handed former South Africa captain found ample support from Lucknow all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed.
Faf du Plessis and Shahbaz Ahmed added 70 runs for the 6th wicket which came from only 48 balls and more importantly for Bangalore, their captain followed it with another sturdy partnership in the middle with the dangerous Dinesh Karthik.
Glenn Maxwell could manage 23 from 11 balls and Suyash Prabhudessai scored a 9-ball 10, but the Bengal all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed scored 26 from 22 balls — a score which was not big enough in terms of numbers but carried a lot of significance for the Bangalore side.
Dinesh Karthik and Faf du Plessis added 49 runs from only 27 balls towards the later part of their innings to help Bangalore reach a big total.
As it happened in the first innings of the contest, Lucknow too made a poor start at as they lost their in-form wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock for 3 and Manish Pandey for 6, with Josh Hazlewood taking both the early wickets.
Lucknow all-rounder Krunal Pandya formed a 31-run stand with captain KL Rahul but then the fight fizzled out when the latter was caught behind by Dinesh Karthik off Harshal Patel, having scored 30 from 24 balls with 3 boundaries and a six.
Kunal Pandya carried on as he brought up another vital partnership in the chase for Lucknow, adding 36 runs with Deepak Hooda for the fourth wicket but steady fall of wickets meant one of the two new teams in the competition were never really in the chase.
Krunal Pandya was dismissed by Glenn Maxwell for 42 from 28 balls with the help of 5 boundaries and 2 sixes as he top scored for his side in the chase.
Lucknow indeed have a long batting lineup but none of them could really convert the starts as the likes of Deepak Hooda (13), Ayush Badoni (13), Marcus Stoinis (24) and Jason Holder (16) did not last long enough to trouble the Bangalore bowlers.
After taking a couple of wickets at the start of the innings, Josh Hazlewood returned for his second spell to break the back of Lucknow’s resistance, dismissing both Ayush Badoni and the dangerous Marcus Stoinis to put Bangalore in firm control of the contest.
Lucknow were eventually restricted to 163/8 in their 20 overs as Bangalore recorded their 5th victory in 7 matches in the ongoing Indian T20 Cricket League 2022 tournament, which propelled them to the 2nd spot in the points table with a net run rate of 0.251.
Bangalore will be pleased with the way their players responded to the situation on Tuesday night at the DY Patil stadium, helping them to their 4th victory in last 5 matches that have also given them 10 points so far.
For Bangalore, the right-arm India fast bowler Mohammed Siraj took 1/31 from his 4 overs whereas Glenn Maxwell returned with an impressive 2-0-11-1 in his short spell. The star Bangalore bowler Harshal Patel was also among wickets — though he was expensive as well — giving away 47 runs from his 4 overs for 2 wickets.
Bangalore will now be seen in action on Saturday, April 23 evening when they take on an in-form Hyderabad side whereas Lucknow will face the struggling Mumbai team on Sunday evening, April 24.
Devarchit Varma is a cricket writer and journalist with an experience of more than a decade, having worked at Hindustan Times (newspaper) and CricketCountry (website). Along with covering international and domestic cricket, he has also interviewed several current and former top players such as Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith, Dale Steyn, Michael Hussey, Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson, Lasith Malinga and many more. He has also worked in other beats as a journalist in Bollywood (Reliance BigOye) and IT (SiliconIndia) industries.
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