Afghanistan pacer Naveen-ul-Haq’s maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) four-fer in playoffs clash against Mumbai Indians (MI) helped Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) equal a 13-year-old record set by Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Along with Naveen’s four-fer, four more wickets were taken by LSG pacers at Chepauk. This is the fifth time pacers have accounted for eight wickets in an IPL innings at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.
When Balaji’s hat-trick created record
The first instance of it happening dates back to Lakshmipathy Balaji took a fifer including the maiden IPL hat-trick against Punjab Kings. Palani Amarnath, Albie Morkel and Manpreet Gony took one wicket each.
LSG’s inexperienced bowling attack equals record
13 years later, Naveen was helped by Yash Thakur’s three-fer and one wicket from Mohsin Khan to equal the record. Naveen's 4/38 is the fifth-best bowling figures for an LSG bowler. It is also the second-best bowling figures by an overseas recruit for LSG. Earlier this season, England's tearaway pacer took 5/14 against David Warner-led Delhi Capitals (DC).
Naveen’s four wickets against Mumbai Indians
The 23-year-old was introduced in the fourth over by skipper Krunal Pandya. He delivered off the second ball with the wicket of MI captain Rohit Sharma who played it down the cover fielder Ayush Badoni's throat. He was brought back into the attack in the 11th over. He got the wicket of Suryakumar Yadav with a slower ball outside off stump. He went for the lofted shot but got caught at long-off by Krishnappa Gowtham.
In the same over, he bowled an off-cutter to take Cameron Green's wicket. The ball missed Green's bat and crashed into the stumps. In his last over, he conceded a six and then bowled three consecutive wides. Once again, the slower ball did the trick. Tilak Varma went for the big shot but got deceived by the pace as he got caught at long-off by Deepak Hooda.
Double the expectations
The LSG team management expected two wickets from their pacer as he revealed during the innings break, “They (LSG) were expecting those two wickets from me, and I delivered at the right time.”
MI batters created a record too
Despite Naveen’s four-fer and no batter scoring a half-century, MI posted a total of 182/8. This is the highest total in IPL playoff clash without a batter scoring a fifty. The previous best was 178/6 by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) against CSK in IPL 2018 final.
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