England’s Test captain Ben Stokes caught two balls and threw a single over (shift of play) for Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League. The Chennai Super Kings scored 217 runs off 20 overs, with Gaikwad scoring 57 runs in 31 balls. Bishnoi took 3 catches while Lucknow Super Giants got 205 runs, with Mayers hitting 53 in 22 balls. In the end, Moeen Ali captured 4 wickets to help Chennai Super Kings win by 12 runs.
Lucknow finished its innings with 205 runs for seven wickets. Ruturaj Gaikwad scored 57 runs and the English seamer Mark Wood took three wickets for Chennai. Surprisingly, England’s Test Captain Ben Stokes bowled one over too. He had a shot before in his troublesome left knee but managed to go through unscathed even though conceding 18 runs.
Chennai purchased a player called Stokes for around 1.6 million pounds. However, Stokes only scored 8 runs in the match after Chennai lost their first game against Gujarat Titans. Thankfully, Gaikwad and Devon Conway (from New Zealand) contributed to an amazing opening stand of 110 runs in 9.1 overs, helping Chennai reach 217 overall.
Ambati Rayudu scored 27 runs in 14 balls to help Chennai pass the 200 mark, with MS Dhoni hitting two back-to-back sixers in the last over and making everyone cheer.
Lucknow’s leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi was the standout player, taking 3 wickets for 28 runs, while Wood picked up 5 wickets at their first win, but gave away a lot of 12 runs per over.
Lucknow had a good start to the game and were doing well in the opening powerplay with 79 runs scored, however, three consecutive players got out which caused them to drop their run-rate. Nicholas Pooran from West Indies team was able to score 32 runs including 3 sixes but the spin bowlers Moeen and Mitchell Santner could not let any more runs through and so they only added 21 runs.
Moeen said that bowling against Lucknow was very hard because they have a lot of power hitters. He is pleased to be able to help the team win the game. On Friday, Lucknow will try to do better against Sunrisers Hyderabad while Chennai face off against Mumbai Indians the next day.
