Lucknow needed 34 runs in the last 12 balls.
Mumbai: Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming compared the dew to Niagara Falls during his team’s IPL match (IPL 2022) against the Lucknow Super Giants in the 19th over. Justified the decision to hand over Shivam Dube instead of the spinner. Lucknow needed 34 runs in the last 12 balls.
Chennai (CSK) captain Ravindra Jadeja handed the 19th over to Dubey, on which Man of the Match Evin Lewis and Ayush Badoni scored 25 runs together. Due to this, Lucknow needed only nine runs to win in the last over, which they scored with three balls to spare.
read also
Fleming said in a post-match virtual press conference, “If you look at the situation before, the spin option could not be tried because as far as the humidity is concerned it was like Niagara Falls and he ( Lucknow) played a good game.”
He said, “The dew was falling a lot and in such a situation it was becoming very difficult for the spinners to get grip on the ball. It was not easy for him to make an impact in such a situation. We already got him one over short but he did well. Fleming said, “We knew that we had to complete this over somewhere in the middle. We were hopeful that in the end we would have enough runs and we would get someone to get that over.
Jadeja’s 21 in two overs while Moeen Ali conceded 14 runs in one over forced Chennai to hand over the ball to medium pacer Dubey. “He made the decision on the field to hand over the ball to Dubey instead of a spinner and it was the right decision,” Fleming said.
Lucknow had a target of 211 runs. Thanks to KL Rahul (40) and Quinton de Kock (61), he added 99 runs in the first 10 overs. The dew was pouring heavily and Fleming praised the new-ball handlers Tushar Deshpande and Mukesh Chowdhary. “We tried some young players. Mukesh was playing for the first time, Deshpande has played the first few matches. But to be honest, it was difficult to bowl. The ball and the outfield were very wet.” (agency)