Krunal Pandya: “We were in a really good position. Everything started when I played that shot… that was not on, and I completely take all the blame. The wicket was the same. We just had to bat better, just take that responsibility. But we didn’t do after that break (the first time-out). It’s always a tough decision; it’s just Kyle had a better record here [than de Kock]. We just felt we could go with Kyle. I just thought we could do something different [starting the bowling with spinners].”
Rohit Sharma: “I had definitely thought of making it [to the Qualifier 2]… We managed our work, and scrambled through it. Akash Madhwal was part of the season last year. He didn’t get to play. We knew what he had, and we needed somebody to bowl at the back end. Having seen him, I was confident he could get the job done for us. Talking about scouts, we have seen so many guys have gone on to play for India and done well. First and foremost, it’s important to make them feel special and part of the team. They play lot of domestic cricket, but this is a different ball game… Our job is to make sure they are comfortable. As a team, we enjoyed the fielding. We want to keep getting better, and throw ourselves… We knew coming to Chennai, one man won’t take us through.”
Akash Madhwal is the Player of the Match: “I was just practising, and waiting for this opportunity. I did my engineering, and played tennis-ball cricket since it was my passion. Engineers have a tendency to learn early! I just practice, and that is what we execute. I’m proud of myself, but I’ll try to be better. Bumrah bhai has his own place, and I’m just trying to play role. Nicholas Pooran was the best wicket. Everyone at home believes I’m working hard.”
Lucknow Super Giants vs Mumbai Indians Highlights today, Wednesday 24-5-2023. Eliminator (N), Indian Premier League 2023, MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai.
Rohit. “I am not sure how much wear and tear will happen. Back in Mumbai we prefer to chase, but here with a longer boundary, we want to bat first. The boys are quite upbeat about it. At the end of the day, we are here. It was a long journey with ups and downs, and because of that we learnt a lot about our team as well. Kumar Kartikeya is out. Hrithik Shokeen comes in.”
Krunal Pandya. “We have got really good match-winners. Where we are, it’s been an entire team effort, it’s not one or two individuals. We would have batted as well but at the end of the day, you have to play good cricket. That’s what matters.”
Mumbai will bat first.
Lucknow Super Giants team: 1 Krunal Pandya (capt), 2 Prerak Mankad, 3 Marcus Stoinis, 4 Nicholas Pooran, 5 Ayush Badoni, 6 Deepak Hooda, 7 K Gowtham, 8 Naveen-ul-Haq, 9 Ravi Bishnoi, 10 Mohsin Khan, 11 Yash Thakur
Mumbai Indians team: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Ishan Kishan (wk), 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Tim David, 5 Tilak Varma, 6 Cameron Green, 7 Chris Jordan, 8 Hrithik Shokeen, 9 Piyush Chawla, 10 Jason Behrendorff, 11 Akash Madhwal
Head to Head In T20’s: 3
Lucknow Super Giants Won: 3
Mumbai Indians Won: 0
Form guide
(last five completed Matches, most recent first)
Lucknow Super Giants WWWLL
Mumbai Indians WLWWL
Match Timings: 2:00 PM GMT | 7:30 PM Local
Umpires – Bruce Oxenford, Virender Sharma
TV Umpire – Chris Gaffaney
Match Referee – Narayanan Kutty
Reserve Umpire – Anil Chaudhary
Match number – IPL 2023 – Eliminator
IPL Points Table
Pitch and weather: The Eliminator is likely to be played on the same pitch on which CSK beat Mumbai in a low-scoring contest. Chennai will again be warm and humid.
