Evin Lewis scored a scintillating unbeaten 55 as the Lucknow Super Giants defeated the Chennai Super Kings by six wickets in a thriller at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday.
After being sent into bat by Lucknow skipper KL Rahul, Robin Uthappa opened the innings in place of Devon Conway. The former gave CSK a early momentum by smashing Avesh Khan for two consecutive boundaries.
However Lucknow fought back by dismissing Ruturaj Gaikwad (1) by a direct hit from Ravi Bishnoi.
England all rounder Moeen Ali took on Krunal Pandya for 14 runs as Chennai reached 73/1 at the end of the powerplay.
The pair of Uthappa and Moeen stitched together a 56 run stand for the second wicket before the former was trapped leg before wicket by Bishnoi for a quickfire fifty. His knock came in 27 balls with 8 fours and a six.
Avesh then cleaned up the dangerous Moeen for a 22 ball-35. Shivam Dube along with Ambati Rayudu added 60 runs for the fourth wicket before the latter (27) missed a slog and was bowled by leg spinner Bishnoi.
All rounder Shivam Dube fell one run short off a well deserved fifty, caught at wide long on by Lewis.
A late blitz from Ravindra Jadeja (17* off 19) and MS Dhoni (16* off 6) took Chennai to a gigantic total of 210/7 in their allotted 20 overs.
For LSG, Avesh Khan, Andrew Tye and Bishnoi claimed 2 wickets each.
In reply, openers KL Rahul and Quinton De Kock got Lucknow off to a fantastic start. The duo added 99 runs for the opening wicket before the former (40) top edged a Dwaine Pretorius delivery to Rayudu at short backward square leg.
Tushar Deshpande then struck by dismissing Manish Pandey caught at mid off by Dwayne Bravo.
De Kock perished for 61 top-edging a Pretorius delivery straight up in the air to MS Dhoni, who completed a fine catch.
Dwayne Bravo became the leading wicket taker in the IPL history by dismissing Deepak Hooda in the 18th over. The CSK veteran surpassed Sri Lankan pacer Lasith Malinga’s record of 170 wickets in 122 matches.
Lewis along with Ayush Badoni kept Lucknow in the contest by smashing Shivam Dube for 25 runs in the penultimate over.
With 9 needed off 6 balls, Badoni (19)* hit the winning runs off Mukesh Choudhary as Lucknow overhauled the massive target with 3 balls to spare.
The West Indian big-hitter remained unbeaten on 55 off 23 balls. His knock comprised off 6 fours and 3 sixes.
For Chennai, Dwaine Pretorius was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 2/31.