In the 66th match played at the fag end of the ongoing 15th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2022) on Wednesday, Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) edged past Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by two runs in a cracker of a game. A spectacular effort by Evin Lewis in the last over won the match for LSG and spurred them to seal IPL 2022 playoff berth.
Once dropped from West Indies' squad for failing the fitness test, time has taken a different turn for the Caribbean cricketer and Lewis has become an overnight star now.
Back in February, 2020, The West Windies were to take on Sri Lanka and Lewis missed out of the squad due to the fact that he came up short in the fitness test.
In the last over, KKR needed 21 runs. Rinku Singh smashed the first four balls of the over for 18 runs with the help of two sixes and a four.
In the last two balls, the Shreyas Iyer-led team required only three runs off two balls. However, Singh played a lofted shot towards the square of the wicket on the offside. Evin Lewis took a brilliant one-handed catch to dismiss the dangerous KKR batter. Lewis timed his dive perfectly to take the catch. It changed the entire complexion of the match. It tilted the match in the favour of LSG. The video of the catch is doing rounds on social media.
Marcus Stoinis then clean bowled Umesh Yadav, sealing the victory for LSG.
In the post match presentation, Stoinis said," We're giving him Man of the Match (Lewis for the catch). The conference happens which is good, everyone wants to have an input. But you have to bowl what you believe is your best ball".
Quinton de Kock struck a sensational hundred and shared a record opening stand with skipper K L Rahul as Lucknow Super Giants pipped Kolkata Knight Riders by two runs in a last-ball IPL thriller to seal their play-off spot here on Wednesday.
De Kock gave a batting masterclass enroute to an unbeaten 140 off 70 balls as he and Rahul (68 not out off 51) fired LSG to 210 for no loss, the highest opening stand in IPL history.
It was a steep chase but KKR stayed in the game through Nitish Rana (42) and captain Shreyas Iyer (50) but it was too big a task for the lower-order. Their innings ended 208 for eight in 20 overs.
Just when it looked KKR were down and out, Sunil Narine (21 not out off) and Rinku Singh (40 off 15) started smashing the LSG bowlers around the ground to reignite hopes of the dug out.
KKR needed 38 runs off the last two overs and they both brought the equation down to 21 off the final over.
