Krunal stars with three wickets as LSG restrict SRH to 121/8

LUCKNOW: Left-arm spinner Krunal Pandya snapped wickets of three top-order batters in a superb spell as Lucknow Super Giants restricted Sunrisers Hyderabad to a paltry 121 for 8 in their IPL match here on Friday.

Krunal (3/18) scalped the wickets of Mayank Agarwal (8), Anmolpreet Singh (31) and captain Aiden Makram (0) -- the last two dismissals from successive balls in the eighth over -- to reduce SRH to 50 for 3.

Playing his first match of the season as well as the first as SRH captain, Markram went for a drive in the first ball he faced but it spun away to disturb his off stump. Ravi Bishnoi then removed Harry Brook, stumped by Nicholas Pooran, for 3 as SRH were in tatters at 55 for 4 in nine overs. SRH could not recover from there.

Veteran leg-spinner Amit Mishra produced a fine spell of 2/23 later in the innings to restrict SRH to a small total. Mishra was substituted by 'Impact Player' Ayush Badoni with just one over left in the innings. LSG skipper KL Rahul's ploy to introduce spin in the third over in the form of Krunal on a difficult wicket having variable bounce paid off.

Agarwal went for a drive only to hit straight to Marcus Stoinis in the third over to give LSG their first wicket. Five overs later, he trapped well-set batter Anmolpreet for an LBW before bowling out Makram the next ball to spoil the South African's first outing as SRH captain.

From 43 for 1 after the powerplay overs, SRH were 63 for 4 at the halfway stage.

One-down Rahul Tripathi (34) played a lone hand in the second half of the innings as he stitched 39 runs, the highest partnership for SRH, with Washington Sundar (16), before he fell in the 18th over off the bowling of Yash Thakur.

Abdul Samad hit two sixes in the final over bowled by Jaydev Unadkat to take the SRH score past 120.