Evin Lewis inspires Lucknow Super Giants to maiden IPL victory

Chasing 210, Evin Lewis smashed a blistering 55 off 23 balls to see his side home with three balls to spare

Mumbai: Chennai Super Kings 210-7, Lucknow Super Giants 211-4 – Lucknow Super Giants won by six wickets

Scorecard

Evin Lewis inspired Lucknow Super Giants to their maiden IPL victory, blasting 55 runs off 23 balls to successfully chase down 210 with three deliveries to spare against CSK.

A 99-run stand between Super Giants openers KL Rahul and Quinton de Kock had the match nicely poised for a tight chase before two wickets - Rahul (40) and Manish Pandey (5) in the space of seven balls just after drinks briefly knocked the stuffing out of the IPL debutants.

De Kock and Lewis quickly got things back on track, scoring 33 runs off 20 balls, but when Dwaine Pretorius struck in the 15th over to remove the South African for 61 (45), the two points appeared to be heading to CSK.

^{Quinton de Kock scored a valuable half-century for Lucknow Super Giants}

Lewis, however, had other ideas. Requiring 72 runs off the remaining 32 balls, he added a speedy 32 (16) with Deepak Hooda before smashing 40 runs off the final 13 balls alongside Ayush Badoni to see his side home.

The West Indian, brutally exposing CSK’s bowling struggles, finished unbeaten on 55 while Badoni struck 19 off 9.

Earlier, CSK had put themselves in a strong position for victory after flexing their batting firepower.

Quickly recovering from losing Ruturaj Gaikwad inside three overs, Robin Uthappa and Moeen Ali scored boundaries for fun as CSK raced to 73 for 1 at the end of the powerplay and their second-wicket partnership yielded 56 runs off 30 balls before Ravi Bishnoi eventually struck to remove Uthappa for 50 (27).

Moeen saw his side into three figures before falling one ball after drinks, bowled by Avesh Khan for 35, but it had no impact on CSK’s scoring, with Ambati Rayudu (27) and Shivam Dube (49) putting on a brisk 60-run stand (37 balls) for the fourth wicket.

Ravindra Jadeja (17 off 9) and MS Dhoni (16 off 6) also got in on the act as CSK closed on 210 for 7. Bishnoi, the pick of Lucknow’s bowlers, finished with figures of 2 for 24.