LSG's quiet urgency: A night where desperation showed in the details Pratyush Sinha

There were many highlights in Lucknow Super Giants' first home victory of the season, but a few stood out more than others. Although they were minor occurrences that were difficult to miss and were not included in the highlights, each of them contributed to altering the rhythm of the game.

One happened just as Akash Deep started his third over. After he had conceded 21 runs in his previous over, his bowling end had just been switched, revealing the rustiness of an injury layoff. One of the substitutes, perhaps Akash Singh, ran out with a quick message from the locker room as he made his way to the top of his mark. Nicholas Pooran stepped in for a brief word later. Akash continued to bowl short, but this time he changed his line to outside off, which appeared to give him a little more control. When Digvesh Rathi was about to bowl the ninth over, it was an additional crucial moment. Even though a timeout had been called, the legbreak-googly bowler and his captain, Rishabh Pant, took their time setting up the field.

Later, Rathi said that they debated having a midwicket fielder, but they decided not to. And Naman Dhir, scoring at the rate of knots at the time, chopped on while trying to score against the turn in exactly that area.
These were just a few instances when LSG players took their time to talk about the game. Similar to what they had done prior to the beginning of the 12th over, Nicholas Pooran, Rishabh Pant, and Aiden Markram met up for a proper discussion. It was what caused a warning for exceeding the 60-second interval between overs, but it also showed how much the home team valued this victory.

Later, Sanjeev Goenka was shown on the big screen taking a piece of paper out of his pocket and reverently touching it to his eyes at the time of Suryakumar Yadav's dismissal. Naturally, there was also head coach Justin Langer, who after the victory gave the ground staff hugs and shook their hands. LSG had taken their previous loss at the same venue rather emotionally. Mentor Zaheer Khan even called the head groundsman a "Punjab curator." Langer later downplayed it as "a bit of emotion," but it wasn't hard to see where that came from.

When seven of your league games are played at home, you need to make the most of it because LSG doesn't have a great home record. It was evidently painful to lose the first home game of the season, which occurred at the beginning of a new three-year cycle. Zaheer acknowledged being "disappointed" and felt for the attendees.

Leaving those emotions behind, LSG pivoted to something more practical. They shifted the focus from pitch talk to what could be done on it, brought in the fit-again Akash Deep as an additional pacer, and switched from red soil to black soil. Pant stated during the toss, "We wanted a different kind of wicket before, and then we decided whatever is on offer, we play on that." After the victory, Langer echoed that. "I think the less we talk about pitches, the better. We must simply play good cricket." After being asked once more to bat first, their desire to win was evident in the powerplay. In Lucknow, it is not the preferred strategy, as chasing teams have won five of the previous six games.

However, Mitchell Marsh sprinted to a 27-ball fifty after facing 30 balls in the powerplay—the most in IPL history—by accident or design. Mahela Jayawardene later admitted that the Mumbai Indians' bowlers should have taken the pace off more often in the first six overs because they were a little slow to adjust. Markram then anchored and accelerated to a late fifty, David Miller finished strong and Ayush Badoni chipped in with a crucial 20 off 12 against spin, his weaker suit, against which he strikes at 114, as LSG posted 203/8, their highest total at home.


LSG had never scored 200 or more at home before this match. In fact, since the IPL switched to a home-and-away format in 2023, they were the only team not to surpass 200 runs at home. They finally made it there after 14 games and two editions, but it turned out that they needed more and a different-colored pitch to get there.

Shardul Thakur and Akash Deep, who had previously made a small adjustment following the mid-over chat mentioned at the beginning of the piece, began with back-of-length bowling into the batter's body, following Hardik Pandya's lead. It was a strategy that was used too much, despite the fact that it brought early success—both MI openers fell cheaply. Dhir, promoted to No. 3, made the most of predictable lines and lengths and kept MI in the hunt with some smart run-scoring.
Suryakumar, playing his 100th IPL match for MI, looked in the mood to celebrate. On his way to fifty, he only made one six, but the ease with which he hit his nine boundaries caused trouble for LSG. He cut, drove, clipped and swept all around the ground, until a wide ball from Avesh Khan, with perhaps a hint of away seam, beat his scoop and brought his innings to an end.


Tilak Varma, who was brought in as the impact sub after Dhir was fired, faced Rathi first, which was a little unfortunate. The left-hander struggled against Rathi's googlies from over the wicket. Ten of his first 11 shots came from legspinners, while seven came from Rathi, each looking at the ball from a slightly different angle. "We had the game in control most of the time even after losing those two early wickets but it was just disappointing that we just couldn't finish it," Mahela said. "Because it's early season, I believe we need to be a little bit more brutal... I blamed our inability to carry out the necessary actions and our lack of intelligence in certain circumstances." And what about Rathi? Imagine being given the ball in the 18th over with Hardik Pandya set at the crease in a run chase that could still swing in either direction.

To bowl just one poor delivery, concede only 11 when the required rate is over 13, those are the kinds of small moments that matter. In a lost chase, it's not often that Hardik doesn't lose. In point of fact, it has only occurred twice previously in the IPL. Shardul talked about avoiding back-of-length cutters in the death overs and learning from previous mistakes. MI was taken aback when he instead brought out the yorkies. In the absence of Mohsin Khan and Mayank Yadav, Shardul performed similarly to his performance in LSG's only other victory this season, allowing just 7 runs in the final over.

That left 21 to defend in the final over. In front of Avesh was Hardik again, a batter he's had success against before (just 17 runs in 29 balls, three dismissals in the IPL). Avesh was favored in the matchup, and once more he prevailed. The game was sealed even before the final over was fully done. Later on, Langer would admit that the team probably benefited from the pain of losing to the Delhi Capitals from a commanding position a few weeks ago. LSG's desperation had revealed itself all evening: in the chats post timeouts, in the mid-over

messages from the backroom staff, and even in the careful field placements by Pant. Due to an over-rate penalty at the conclusion, they were forced to defend the final over with only four fielders outside the ring. Avesh Khan, on the other hand, paused to set his field precisely, even though 13 were required from the final ball. Again, it was a small act that was easy to overlook, but it perfectly summed up the night for LSG, when their urgency to win was

demonstrated not only in daring moves but also in the smallest of details.