Lucknow Super Giants 193 (Mayers 73, Pooran 36, Khaleel 2-30) beat Delhi Capitals 143 for 9 (Warner 56, Wood 5-14) by 50 runs
Mayers might not have even played this game for Lucknow Super Giants had Quinton de Kock been available for the franchise. He was dropped on 14 by Khaleel Ahmed and in the powerplay, he managed only a run-a-ball 17. The left-handed batter then lined up Capitals’ left-arm spinners Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav to finish with almost two runs a ball; Super Giants finished with an above-par 193 for 6 on a challenging pitch.
Wood then took the pitch out of the equation and knocked over Prithvi Shaw and Mitchell Marsh with 147kph thunderbolts. He went on to become the second England player after Dimitri Mascarenhas to bag a five-wicket haul in the IPL. Though Capitals’ new captain David Warner made a half-century, he couldn’t keep in touch with the mounting asking rate. Capitals eventually fell short of their target by 51 runs.
Impact Players: Aman Khan and K Gowtham
After Khaleel finished his four overs with the ball, Capitals replaced him with Aman Khan. Aman, who is arguably a better fielder than Khaleel, patrolled the boundary in the last over of Super Giants’ innings. Then, when he came out to bat at No.7 for Capitals, their chase had already spiralled out of control.
With just one ball left in their innings, Super Giants roped in allrounder K Gowtham as an Impact Player in place of Ayush Badoni, who had just holed out for 18 off seven balls. Gowtham launched his first ball – and the final ball of the innings – for six and then gave up just 23 runs in his four overs. Warner, in particular, struggled to get Gowtham away, managing only seven off eight balls from him.
Mayers messes with Kuldeep and Axar
The Ekana pitch was a strange one. The green patch offered some extra bounce while the drier areas assisted turn. At the post-match presentation, Warner felt that they were playing on two different surfaces from either end. Mayers didn’t take too many risks in the powerplay, where Super Giants crawled to 30 for 1.
But then he went on a boundary-hitting spree against Kuldeep and Axar. All up, he smashed them for 42 off 17 balls. It needed a ripper from Axar to bowl Mayers in the 12th over. Mayers’ early success in the IPL will leave Super Giants’ management with a happy headache once de Kock links up with the side after the final ODI against Netherlands, which is on April 2.
Pooran, Badoni provide finishing kick
Nicholas Pooran, for whom Super Giants had shelled out INR 16 crore (USD 1.95 million approx.) at the auction, also made a good impression, hitting 36 off 21 balls. Pooran cracked his fourth ball for six and went onto hit two more sixes. Twenty-three-year-old Ayush Badoni, who was Super Giants’ finisher last season, pitched in with 18 off seven balls as Super Giants posted a huge total.
Wood cranks it up
Wood then took centre stage as he harried Capitals with high pace and trampoline bounce. After softening Prithvi Shaw with the bouncer, Wood went fuller and stormed through his defences with a seemingly unplayable inducker. He went even fuller to Marsh next ball and bowled him in similar fashion by getting the ball to zip back in off the seam. Wood missed the hat-trick, but in his next over, he banged one in at Sarfaraz Khan’s throat and had him ramping a catch to deep fine leg when he was aiming to clear deep third. Wood returned to decimate the lower order too and marked his return to the IPL after five years with a Player-of-the-Match display.
Deivarayan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo