Lucknow Super Giants on Thursday registered their first victory in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022. Defending champions Chennai Super Kings challenged them with a 211-run target but KL Rahul and his boys made the chase look easy, jumping off every hurdle pretty comfortably.
Rahul and Quinton de Kock laid the foundation of success with a remarkable 99-run opening stand. Following their dismissals, the likes of Evin Lewis and Ayush Badoni took the matter in their hands and finished things off in style. Lucknow chased down 211 with three balls to spare, winning the game by 6 wickets.
Youngster Badoni hogged the limelight once again with his pleasant stroke play. He scored an unbeaten 19 off just 9 balls, including 2 sixes. After defeating CSK, he revealed the game plan, stating that the team had decided to take limited risk while facing Dwayne Bravo.
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“The plan was not to take risks against Bravo. But once only two overs were left, we had to take risks because I guess we needed 28 runs (34). So, we went all out,” said Badoni while addressing a virtual presser after the match.
With 37 required off the last 12 balls, Lewis and Badoni hammered Shivam Dubey for 25 runs in the penultimate over. The former then smashed a maximum in the final over to take LSG home.
When asked about what instructions he received from either Rahul or mentor Gautam Gambhir, Badoni said, “I know my game, so they just told me to play my natural game. They knew that if I and Evin (Lewis) are successful in hitting the big strokes, then we could win. So, there was no such message. It was just about playing our shots and we executed it well.”
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Earlier on Monday, Badoni made his IPL debut in style, smashing a half-century in the campaign opener against Gujarat Titans. He scored 54 off 41 deliveries as LSG posted 158 for 6. Unfortunately, his efforts went in vain as Hardik Pandya’s side won the game by 5 wickets.
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