IPL 2023: Mumbai eliminate Lucknow

MI’s Akash Madhwal (centre) celebrates a LSG wicket in Chennai yesterday. Pics/AFP

The end, when it came, was swift, decisive, and comical. Having given themselves an even chance of hunting down Mumbai Indians's excellent 182-8, Lucknow Super Giants embarked on a spectacular trail of self-destruction at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, finding novel ways of courting disaster to concede the Eliminator of the IPL by a massive 81 runs.

Mumbai, the five-time champions, are masters at taking a mile when given an inch. Lucknow gave them the entire mile, slipping from a position of reasonable promise at 68 for two after eight overs to an embarrassing 101 all out with 21 deliveries remaining. The commanding victory ensured that Rohit Sharma's men will lock horns with Hardik Pandya's Gujarat Titans in Qualifier 2 in Ahmedabad on Friday.

Cameron Green during his 41 yesterday

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Krunal Pandya, Hardik's older brother, will wonder long and hard how his side effortlessly tossed this game away. Coming into this contest holding a 3-0 edge over the opponents and sitting on a three-match winning streak, they perhaps leaked 15 runs too many in the first half on putting the opponents in, but it was in the manner in which they pressed the panic button during the chase that their frailties were brutally exposed.

Marcus Stoinis, making the most of being dropped on two by Impact Player Nehal Wadhera, seemed to be on to a good thing with his subdued captain for company when Pandya holed out to long-on off leggie Piyush Chawla. In the next over, the supremely impressive Akash Madhwal, the Player of the Match, broke the back of the chase, cleaning up Ayush Badoni and having Nicholas Pooran caught behind off successive deliveries. Then, Stoinis's stay ended after he collided with fellow ball-watcher Deepak Hooda while going for a second run, and K Gowtham ran himself out as he tried to be cheeky and Rohit scored a direct hit from cover after an excellent stop at point by Cameron Green, who relayed the ball to the captain when still on the ground. It was all downhill after that, Madhwal finishing with the extraordinary figures of five for five in 3.3 overs, by a distance his best T20 figures.

Mumbai's batting earlier in the night was dotted by a breezy 33 from Suryakumar Yadav and a muscular 41 from Cameron Green, while the returning Tilak Varma stemmed a potential rot with a classy 26.

Brief scores
MI 182-8 (C Green 41, S Yadav 33; Naveen-ul-Haq 4-38, Y Thakur 3-34) beat LSG 101 all out in 16.3 overs (M Stoinis 40; A Madhwal 5-5) by 81 runs

Field day for LSG

LSG pacer Naveen-ul-Haq is ecstatic after claiming the wicket of MI skipper Rohit Sharma in Chennai yesterday. He bagged 4-38; LSG's Ravi Bishnoi prepares to take a catch to dismiss MI's Nehal Wadhera for 23; Deepak Hooda (right) celebrates the wicket of Tilak Varma with teammate Ravi Bishnoi. Pics/PTI, AFP

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