CHENNAI: KL Rahul's 82 and Quinton de Kock's 52 built the foundation as Lucknow Super Giants defeated Chennai Super Kings at the Ekana Cricket Stadium.
With 176 to chase, Lucknow started cautiously, but soon the opening pair of Rahul and de Kock found momentum as they added 54 runs inside the powerplay. None of the Chennai bowlers could trouble the Lucknow openers. Rahul brought up his half-century off 31 balls and with the next ball took the partnership past 100. De Kock followed his captain and reached his half-ton off 41 balls. Mustafizur Rahman finally broke the partnership of 134, but that just brought Nicholas Pooran to the crease. The duo continued their aggression and Ravindra Jadeja took a brilliant diving catch to cut Rahul's innings off. Pooran and Marcus Stoinis then closed the victory with one over to go.
Earlier, Lucknow Super Giants won the toss and invited Chennai to bat first. Ajinkya Rahane, who opened the batting with Rachin Ravindra, started the game with a four in the first over. However, Mohsin Khan's peach of a delivery took Ravindra's inside edge to crash into the stumps. Rahane and Ruturaj Gaikwad then tried to build the partnership, before Yash Thakur broke the partnership with the wicket of captain Gaikwad, but Chennai still managed to reach 51 in the powerplay.
With the introduction of spin immediately after the powerplay, Chennai's inning slowed down a bit and that gave way for Krunal Pandya to go through Rahane's defenses. Shivam Dube and Sameer Rizvi did not last long and at the end of the 13th over, Chennai were in trouble with 93/5. Moeen Ali, batting at seven, took his time to settle in the middle, but their running between the wickets kept Chennai in the hut for the big score. Jadeja meanwhile smashed his first half-century of the season with a six off Khan as Deepak Hooda missed an easy catch at the long-on boundary.
Once Ravi Bishnoi came back to bowl, Ali made most of his chances and hit three consecutive sixes to turn the momentum Chennai's way in the 18th over. His wicket in the same over brought MS Dhoni to bat. The wicketkeeper took 15 runs including a four and a six to take Chennai past 150, which was looking difficult at one point. Yash Thakur was ineffective against Dhoni in the final over as he gave away 20 runs in the final over. Dhoni's 28 off nine balls in the death overs took Chennai to 176 for seven at the end of the innings.
Brief score: Chennai Super Kings 176 for six in 20 overs (Ravindra Jadeja 57 n.o, Ajinkya Rahane 36; Krunal Pandya 2/16) lost to Lucknow Super Giants 180/2 in 19 overs (KL Rahul 82, Quinton de Kock 54; Matheesha Pathirana 1/29)