KL Rahul in his 100th IPL match led from the front by scoring a fantastic century, as The Lucknow Super Giants defeated the Mumbai Indians by 18 runs at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday.
After being sent in by MI skipper, openers Rahul along with Quinton de Kock got Lucknow off to a fantastic start. The duo put on 52 runs for the opening stand before the latter missed a reverse sweep, and was dismissed leg before wicket by Fabian Allen for 24.
The Karnataka star was involved in yet another solid 72 run stand for the second wicket alongside Manish Pandey, before the latter perished to Murugan Ashwin for a 29 ball-38.
Skipper Rahul scored a dazzling 103 off just 60 balls to take the Super Giants to 199/4 in 20 overs. His innings comprised off 9 fours and 5 sixes.
For Mumbai, Jaydev Unadkat was the best bowler with figures of 2/32.
Chasing 200, Mumbai got off to a poor start as skipper Rohit Sharma (6) fell in the third over, nicking at a Avesh Khan delivery to De Kock behind the stumps.
Dewald Brevis and Ishan Kishan added 41 runs for the second wicket before the former was caught at extra cover by Deepak Hooda off Avesh Khan for a quickfire 31.
Kishan then dragged at a Marcus Stoinis delivery back onto the stumps, leaving MI in a spot of bother at 57/3.
Tilak Verma and Suryakumar Yadav stitched together a 64 run stand for the fourth wicket before the former was cleaned up by a brilliant yorker from Jason Holder for 26.
Ravi Bishnoi dashed Mumbai’s hopes by dismissing Suryakumar (37), caught at deep square by substitute Krishnappa Gowtham.
Kieron Pollard (25 off 14) and Jaydev Unadkat (14 off 6) provided up some late flourish towards the end, but failed to take their side past the finishing line as they finished at 181/9 in their allotted 20 overs.
Lokesh Rahul was named the Player of the Match for his fantastic hundred.
Lucknow Super Giants 199-4 in 20 overs (KL Rahul 103 not out, Manish Pandey 38; Jaydev Unadkat 2/32) beat Mumbai Indians 181-9 in 20 overs (Dewald Brevis 31, Suryakumar Yadav 37, Tilak Varma 26; Avesh Khan 3/30) by 18 runs.