IPL 2023: Lucknow Super Giants vs Sunrisers Hyderabad Match 10 - Talking Points and Who Said What?

Lucknow Super Giants recorded a dominating five-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 10th match of the Indian Premier League 2023 (IPL) at Lucknow's Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium on April 7. The pitch turned out to be heaven for the spinners as Sunrisers Hyderabad were restricted to just 121/8 while batting first. KL Rahul and Krunal Pandya added crucial runs to help the Super Giants record an easy chase to top the points table.

Both teams made some big changes, with Aiden Markram making his captaincy debut for Sunrisers Hyderabad and the pace duo of Mark Wood and Avesh Khan missing the game. Rahul read the surface well and introduced spin early to take control of the game. Krunal Pandya proved crucial with three big wickets and veteran Amit Sharma bagged 2/23 to take advantage.

Rahul Tripathi was the lone warrior for the Sunrisers as he recorded 34 off 41 but the likes of Markram and Harry Brook struggled to make an impact. The Super Giants never seemed troubled in the chase as KL Rahul's 35 off 31 and Krunal's 34 off 23 were enough to record an easy win in just 16 overs.

KL Rahul's masterstroke to play four spinners

KL Rahul was impressive with his leadership skills as he used his bowling options well to restrict the Sunrisers to just 121. He introduced spin in just the third over and rotated his options between Ravi Bishnoi, Krunal, and Mishra to put his team in control from the beginning. Wood and Avesh are likely to come back to playing eleven in the next game but Rahul will definitely prefer a stacked spin attack for the majority of home games this season.

Sunrisers Hyderabad look strong, but only on paper

Markram also figured out conditions early as he left out the likes of Glenn Phillips, Heinrich Klaasen, and Marco Jansen. But the big-name players were clueless against Lucknow's spin attack. Markram himself was bowled out for a golden duck while Harry Brook, who was bought by Hyderabad for INR 13.25 crore, contributed just three runs. Mayank got another disappointing performance as he gave away his wicket after scoring just eight off seven as the Sunrisers' early struggles were left exposed wide open.

Losing captain, Aiden Markram said

Not enough runs, tried to get to 150-160 but lost too many wickets and didn’t get any momentum going. We realized it wasn’t going to be a great wicket to bat in terms of history, but we were happy to fight. They bowled brilliantly according to the conditions. Good effort from our bowlers, we didn’t give them enough runs to play with but they fought hard. (On the next home game) Different conditions once again, the team has played there already. The Punjab Kings are flying high but Sunday is a chance to pinch them.

Winning captain, KL Rahul said

Yesterday (when did he know how the pitch would play?). We've been here for a couple of weeks now. Knew what we were getting into (nature of the pitch). Even when Jaydev bowled a few cutters, it was gripping. Was a no-brainer to bowl spin early. First instinct when I saw both pitches was that we'll need to bat smartly here. We've adapted well as a batting unit. Each person plays very differently. Just have been a couple of chats with the batting group to help each other out. Good to see the players are going there and putting in the practice.

Player of the Match, Krunal Pandya said

Very good day at the office I can say. Both (what he enjoyed more?). Runs, wickets - everything is hard-earned. Everything is special. More right-handers in their lineup - knew I would be bowling four overs. This year I'm in a good headspace. Once you have clarity up there, things fall in places. I'm very process-driven, don't think about results. Was just playing white-ball formats. What happened last two-three years was I kept getting wider and wider. Whatever I did in the last 3-4 months is coming out really well. I'm trying to recollect how I played in the first 4-5 years in IPL where I was batting at four for MI. Trying to find that rhythm and consistency. Having the clarity helps. I'm okay with any track.