LSG vs CSK: Krunal Pandya becomes third player to register golden duck on IPL captaincy debut

The incredible action continues to amaze in the Indian Premier League 2023 on Wednesday, May 03 as Lucknow Super Giants are hosting Chennai Super Kings in match 45 of the season. CSK captain MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to bowl first. LSG are being led by all-rounder Krunal Pandya after regular skipper KL Rahul got injured while fielding in their previous fixture against Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Walking into the game for the first time as IPL captain, Pandya didn’t have a memorable outing with the bat as he got dismissed for a golden duck edging his first delivery straight to first slip. After LSG lost their second wicket in the sixth over of the innings, Pandya walked in to bat at number 4.

The southpaw fell prey to Maheesh Theekshana on his very first ball and suffered the ignominy of getting out for a duck on his IPL captaincy debut. However, the 32-year-old isn’t the first player to have the unwanted record to his name as Aiden Markram (SRH vs LSG, IPL 2023) and VVS Laxman (DC vs KKR, IPL 2008) are also on the list.

Pandya took over the captaincy duties from Rahul during LSG’s last game after the former got injured in the first innings.

Rain plays spoilsport in LSG vs CSK clash

Coming back to the match, after being put into bat first, LSG got off to a horrible start as they were reeling at 44/5 in 9.4 overs with CSK spinners having a field day bowling on a conducive wicket in Lucknow. Seeing their team in trouble, Nicholas Pooran (20 off 31) and Ayush Badoni (59* off 33) added 59 runs for the fifth wicket off 48 balls.

Their partnership was broken by Matheesha Pathirana in the 18^th over as he dismissed Pooran. However, Badoni continued to attack and took LSG to 125/7 after 19.2 overs before rain interrupted play. Moeen Ali (2/13), Maheesh Theekshana (2/37) and Matheesha Pathirana (2/22 in 3.2 overs) picked up two wickets each for CSK while Ravindra Jadeja picked up 1/11 in 3 overs.