KL Rahul ton, bowlers guide LSG to 36-run win as MI suffer 8th straight loss

Centurion KL Rahul and bowlers guide Lucknow Super Giants to a clinical 36-run win over Mumbai Indians at Wankhede Stadium. It was the eighth consecutive defeat for Mumbai Indians this season as it is going from bad to worse for them. Rahul played a standout knock at a pitch where other batters find it extremely tough to bat. Rahul slammed his second century of the season to take LSG to a fighting total of 168/6 which turned out to be too much for Mumbai Indians who were restricted by Lucknow bowlers for 132/8 in 20 overs.

Tilak Varma played a ferocious knock of 38 runs to take the game closer for his team but it wasn’t enough for Mumbai to fetch two points.

The win helped Lucknow to move to the fourth spot on the points table while point-less Mumbai remained intact at the bottom.

Asked to bat first, Rahul and Quinton de Kock were off to a slow start as a result the wicketkeeper lost his wicket early for 10 courtesy of a fine diving catch from Rohit Sharma on Jasprit Bumrah’s delivery. Manish Pandey, who came out to bat at number 3, completely looked out of colour in his run-a-ball 22-run knock. However, he shared a 58-run stand with Rahul who also started things a bit slow but picked up the pace at the right moment to shift momentum in his team’s favour.

The maverick batter looked quite comfortable against the short-pitch deliveries which MI pacers offered him at regular intervals. He became the second Indian batter to score two centuries in the season after Virat Kohli who scored four during the 2016 season. It was Rahul’s fourth IPL century which helped him join the elite list of players with 4 and more centuries in IPL history.