On April 1 at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow, the Lucknow Super Giants got their Indian Premier League 2023 campaign started to a rousing start with a 50-run victory against the Delhi Capitals.
When allowed to bat first, Lucknow exploded for 193 runs thanks in large part to a brilliant effort by Kyle Mayers (73 off 38 balls).
In response, Delhi’s batting was completely demolished by a scorching spell from Mark Wood, who took 5/14 in only four overs. As a consequence, Lucknow got off to a winning start as Delhi Capitals struggled to a score of 143/9 in their 20 overs.
Former India cricketer Parthiv Patel, reflecting on Delhi’s loss, said the team sorely missed regular skipper Rishabh Pant and needed to find someone who could motivate them to recover from such a crushing defeat.
“Delhi must have missed Rishabh Pant – the batter, the wicketkeeper and the captain. You cannot replace a player like him. But from Delhi’s perspective, they will need to figure out who will come and inspire them after this huge defeat. This will put a huge dent on their net run rate as well,” said Parthiv on JioCinema.
For bringing up the first fifer of the year, Mark Wood received high praise from the former wicketkeeper-batsman. He said that it was because of him that Prithvi Shaw’s weaknesses were revealed and his defences were destroyed.
After a first-wicket stand of 41 runs by Shaw and David Warner, Lucknow fought back thanks to the English seamer. In his first over, he removed Shaw and Mitchell Marsh before sending back Sarfaraz Khan in his second.
Suresh Raina, a former India and Chennai Super Kings batsman spoke highly of Kyle Mayers after the latter hit a spectacular hundred in his first IPL game. He also gave compliments to Nicholas Pooran and Ayush Badoni for making brief appearances that ultimately contributed to Lucknow’s score of 190 runs or more.
