The pitch has assisted the spinners and Krunal Pandya made the most of it.
Aiden Markram didn’t enjoy the best of starts to his stint as captain of the Sunrisers Hyderabad as he got a peach of a delivery on the very first delivery he faced in the game against Lucknow Super Giants.
Krunal Pandya wreaked havoc as he picked up three of those wickets. He has been unplayable on a deck that’s offering a lot to the slow bowlers.
Markram is playing his first game as a captain in the IPL. However, he has had a forgetful start, as Krunal Pandya dismissed him on the very first ball. Krunal bowled a fuller-length delivery on the off-stump line. Markram didn’t move his feet much and tried to drive it. The ball just turned enough to get past Markram’s outside edge and shatter the off-stump.
Headline for tomorrow’s 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬 📰
𝘏𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘢𝘳 𝘗𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘺𝘢 𝘣𝘩𝘢𝘪𝘺𝘢, 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘢𝘢#LSGvSRH #TATAIPL #IPLonJioCinema | @krunalpandya24 pic.twitter.com/mQ7dui048U
— JioCinema (@JioCinema) April 7, 2023
SRH captain, Aiden Markram, couldn’t believe his luck. This is definitely not the start Aiden would have expected on his captaincy debut. He has himself to blame only. Markram could have countered it in a better way.
This was Krunal Pandya’s third wicket of the day and probably the biggest one too. The track in Lucknow has certainly played a role too. The pitch is curated to assist the tweakers specifically.
The ball is remaining low, turning and stopping enough after pitching on the surface. LSG have also chosen the XI keeping the conditions in mind. They have brought Amit Mishra to the XI.
LSG’s main pacer – Mark Wood – is down with the flu, and that might have tempted them to prepare a track like this. This is not a traditional track for the T20s. A score of around 135 can be defended with some good bowling here.
