LSG pulled off a convincing win against favourites SRH in Hyderabad © BCCI March 28 LSG redeem themselves in Hyderabad You know what awaited Rishabh Pant after the match? A warm hug from Sanjiv Goenka. And not the hard talk KL Rahul got last year. Under a new captain and with a fresh-faced bowling attack, LSG pulled off a win against SRH in Hyderabad, the same venue where they were walloped last year, when SRH chased 166 in under 10 overs like it was a warm-up drill. This time, Pant asked SRH to bat first in a brave (and some might say risky) move against a team that had just smashed 286, the second-highest IPL total ever. But it worked. Everything clicked. And Pant walked off the field to smiles. Good for him… Shardul Thakur makes a difference From going unsold at the IPL auction to holding the Purple Cap, it’s been a dramatic couple of weeks for Shardul Thakur. He wasn’t even meant to be here; he was supposed to be in the UK for his maiden county stint. But instead, it all changed with a call from Zaheer Khan. Yesterday, he turned up at a venue where bowlers usually come to be buried, and picked up 4 for 34 against batters who specialise in doing just that. Quite the statement! So how did LSG bowlers manage to keep SRH to 190/9? Mixing the lengths up. Unlike RR, who mostly bowled short, LSG displayed a greater variation in length. And when they erred, they erred on the full side and did that away from the line of the stumps, forcing the SRH batters to fetch the ball. We explore all this in our latest edition of Data Shorts. And how good was Pooran? Clean swing of the bat, come pace, come spin. 70 off 26 that helped LSG chase the target with almost four overs to spare! Here’s what he had to say: “I don’t plan to hit sixes,” Pooran said after his 26-ball 70. “I just try my best to get in good positions and if it’s there, just time the ball nicely. In the last nine years I have been working on my craft… I’ve never worked on my bat speed, I’m just blessed with incredible talent!” Quote of the day “Whatever they make, we will chase it down” – Rishabh Pant, after asking SRH to bat first Unpacking the CSK-RCB rivalry No titles, no away wins in Chepauk since 2008, and a lopsided 21-11 head-to-head record in CSK’s favour: by every metric, this is a rivalry that shouldn’t exist. But the inflection point came last year on May 18, when RCB beat CSK in a knockout match at the Chinnaswamy to qualify for the PlayOffs. Kaushik Rangarajan weaves his usual magic unpacking this rivalry that has started to live beyond the field, shaping conversations, fuelling social media debates, and even seeping into pop culture! Seen Dragon yet? Time to finally win in Chennai then? RCB will want to go where they have never been before. Yes, that means finally holding a trophy after 18 years but all that starts with beating CSK in Chennai, something they have never been able to do before. Matheesha Pathirana is an unlikely starter, there’s uncertainty around Bhuvneshwar’s inclusion, and Ashwin could be a key-matchup for Rajat Patidar, the best player of spin in that RCB lineup. All that and more in our preview.
