Pant’s mature 68 seals LSG’s five-wicket win over SRH in Hyderabad
Pant’s mature 68 seals LSG’s five-wicket win over SRH in Hyderabad
Rishabh Pant anchors a tense chase as Lucknow Super Giants chase 156/9, riding Klaasen and Reddy's 100-run stand after Shami's early masterclass.
Mohammed Shami set the tone with a sensational opening spell, rattling SRH’s top order and restricting the run-rate to single digits. His four-over spell yielded 2 wickets, including the early blows to Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head, and he kept 18 dot balls on the board, strangling the SRH chase before it could truly take off.
With the scoreboard reading 35/4 inside the powerplay, SRH found a lifeline in the counter-attack of Heinrich Klaasen and Nitish Kumar Reddy. The duo stitched 116 for the fifth wicket, turning a potential collapse into a competitive fight. Klaasen smashed 62 off 41, while Reddy hit 56 off 33, mixing patience with a flurry of boundaries—seven sixes and eight fours combined—lifting SRH to a solid position at one stage.
Lucknow’s bowlers then tightened the screws late, with Manimaran Siddharth breaking the dangerous stand by removing Reddy and Avesh Khan striking twice to prise out Klaasen and Harsh Dubey. Prince Yadav bowled a tight final over, conceding only 10, setting SRH back to 156/9 and raising questions about the par score on a used pitch.
In reply, LSG rode Pant’s calm under pressure. With the chase slipping away at times, Pant anchored the pursuit and guided his side to a five-wicket win with an unbeaten half-century in the final over. The finishing touches came from a composed, fearless display that kept LSG ahead of the required rate throughout the innings.
Both teams walked away with positives, but the night belonged to Pant’s finishing kick and Shami’s early stranglehold, a combination that pushed Lucknow over the line in a dramatic Hyderabad finish.
