Akash Madhwal's Five-Wicket Haul Blows Away LSG At Chepauk
Akash Madhwal against LSG (AP Photo)
Mumbai Indians (MI) : 182-8 in 20 Overs [Cameron Green 41 (23), Suryakumar Yadav 33 (20); Naveen-ul-Haq 4/38 (4)] beat Lucknow Super Giants (LSG): 101-10 in 16.3 Overs [Marcus Stoinis 40 (27), Kyle Mayers 18 (13); Akash Madhwal 5/5 (3.3)] by 81 runs.
Mumbai Indians (MI) are the five-time IPL champions and there is a reason behind it - they know when to bring their A-game onto the table and shatter opposition's dreams in style. In the Eliminator of IPL 2023, they did exactly that as they annihilated LSG with their class and swag to storm into Qualifier 2 of IPL 2023.
Mumbai Indians posted a above-par total in the first innings on a difficult Chepauk track and then delivered their best bowling performance to completely blow away LSG in a do-or-die game.
MI nail modern-day batsmanship despite Naveen-ul-Haq's four-fer
Rohit Sharma won the toss and decided to bat first in a do-or-die encounter and MI batters made sure that their captain's decision is proved right. The start though was not that good for MI as Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan departed early in the Powerplay with Naveen-ul-Haq and Yash Thakur taking one wicket each. However, MI batters did not shy away from playing their natural game as Green and Suryakumar Yadav came out all guns blazing and stitched together a 64-run stand to bring MI back on track.
Naveen-ul-Haq though came back into the attack and got both of them in same over but MI batters still kept going. The cameos by Tilak Varma and Nehal Wadhera powered MI to 182 even though MI lost 8 wickets with Naveen-ul-Haq picking four and Yash Thakur getting three wickets.
Akash Madhwal's five-wicket haul and Eliminator pressure proved too hot to handle for LSG
LSG needed their batters to start well in a stiff run-chase but Akash Madhwal got rid of Prerak Mankad in the second over. Jordan then showed his prowess and got the big wicket of Mayers in the fourth over to put pressure on the volatile LSG batting line-up. Krunal Pandya and Stoinis then tried to bring some parity into proceedings but Pandya never got going and eventually was outfoxed by Piyush Chawla.
The things just went downhill rapidly after Krunal Pandya's wicket and from 69-2, LSG were bundled out for just 101. Akash Madhwal got two in two in the 10th over to rattle LSG's hopes and then the run-outs of Stoinis, Gowtham and Hooda showed what the pressure of a knockout game can do to the best of the batters.
Madhwal bowled a splendid spell that will be remembered for the ages as he gave away just 5 runs in 21 balls and took five wickets to show his class on the big stage of IPL. He ended with best figures for the uncapped player in the history of the IPL.
MI now with this 81-run win will play GT in the Qualifier 2 of IPL 2023 at Ahmedabad on 26th of May.
 "Aashay Chopade")