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Lucknow Super Giants captain Krunal Pandya believes that Abhishek Sharma's spell was the turning point in the Indian Premier League match against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Saturday.
In the 16th over bowled by Abhishek, Nicholas Pooran struck three consecutive sixes. Before him, Marcus Stoinis struck two consecutive sixes off the first two balls but ended up losing his wicket on the third ball. Pooran carried the momentum and gathered 30 runs in 6 balls to bring LSG back into the game. After the win, Krunal said at the post-match presentation, "With the way they were going I thought 200, but we pulled it back nicely towards the end, especially by Yash and Avesh. At this level anything is possible, we had the belief and with players like Stoinis and Pooran, we had to believe." "We knew we had to go and there was nothing special (was said during the timeout), luckily it paid off for us and Abhishek's over changed the momentum. He's (Prerak Mankad) coming in for his first season and to come out and bat like that shows a lot of character, really happy for him to coming out here and score those runs. Even he will believe he belongs here," he added. With the combined batting performances of young Prerak Mankad, Nicholas Pooran and Marcus Stoinis, LSG won comfortably against SRH by seven wickets. Prerak gave a solid base to LSG with his outstanding knock of 64 off 45 balls before Marcus Stoinis scored a quickfire 40 off 25 balls to drive the innings forward. Thereafter, Nicholas Pooran finished the match with his explosive 44 off just 13 balls. Glenn Philips, Mayank Markande and Abhishek Sharma took a wicket apiece. Choosing to bat first, SRH started slow and steady with the willow before losing their first wicket on the first ball of the third over. Klaasen scored a brilliant 47 off 29 balls and Samad helped him with his 37 off 25 balls. Riding on their knocks, SRH were able to able to set a challenging 183 for the LSG. Skipper Krunal Pandya was the pick of the bowlers for LSG, taking two wickets at the expense of just 24 runs in his full quota of 4 overs. Yudhvir Singh, Avesh Khan, Yash Thakur and Amit Mishra took a wicket apiece. (ANI)
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