Lucknow: Lucknow Super Giants put up an embarrassing batting display with some questionable tactical calls to be shot out for 141 in 18.4 overs in their IPL match against Delhi Capitals Wednesday.
Delhi Capitals skipper Axar Patel opted to bowl first, and even though the Ekana Stadium wicket wasn’t a belter, there couldn’t be any tangible excuse for the LSG unit for its pathetic batting display.
A fit-again T Natarajan (329 in 4 overs), Kuldeep Yadav (231 in 4 overs) and the brilliant Lungi Ngidi (327 in 3.4 overs), who bowled perhaps a contender for the ‘ball of the tournament’, made life miserable for the home team, which looked as bad on field as it had seemed on paper as per the pre-tournament predictions.
Captain Rishabh Pant, in a surprising move from the team’s perspective, broke a successful opening pair of Aiden Markram and Mitchell March and promoted himself at the top of the order.
Pant (7 off 9 balls) started with a nice bowler’s back-drive off Mukesh Kumar, but in the next over was run-out at the non-striker’s end when the bowler was able to get finger tip onto a smashing straight hit from Marsh.
But to be frank, Pant didn’t look comfortable for once despite that opening boundary, and it seemed more like a desperation to get his India T20 slot back.
Aiden Markram (11) hit a six and a four, but DC skipper Axar Patel’s wicket-to-wicket delivery breached his defence.
The highly-rated Ayush Badoni (0) edged one from T Natarajan that was angled across, but it was Ngidi’s newfound confidence with the execution of slower deliveries which became the standout moment of the first half.
It was a floating off-cutter that beat the dangerous Nicholas Pooran (8 off 8 balls), whose philosophy hinges on bat-speed, saw the loopy trajectory of the delivery dip late. The ball sneaked between the bat and pad to hit the stumps.
In the case of Ngidi, there was no perceptible change in his arm speed as he considerably took the pace off.
Ngidi, who has perfected the pace-off deliveries with variable lengths, tightened the noose on the LSG batters. He also accounted for Shahbaz Ahmed with a wide, slower yorker, which is a difficult art to execute.
Regarding Kuldeep, he got a bit of punishment initially, but he did the job well getting the dangerous Marsh with a googly that saw the bat face turn in his hand and leading edge flying to mid-off.
