It was right up to my match-up: Nicholas Pooran

The Match 58 of IPL 2023 saw an amazing run chase from Lucknow Super Giants. Behind the eight-ball for most part of the innings in a 183-run chase, Lucknow turned the game in the 16th over, where Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran came together to smash five sixes in Abhishek Sharma’s over. The over brought 31 runs and it became a cakewalk for Lucknow from there on.

Pooran clobbered three of those five sixes which were also the first three balls of his innings. He finished unbeaten on 44 off 13 balls including four sixes. His strike-rate of 338.5 is the second highest strike-rate in an IPL innings with at least 10 balls faced. 

 “We knew we could target that one over from spin, it was right up to my match-up and thankfully it came off well,” said Pooran about the blistering start to his cameo ater the match. 

Sunrisers Hyderabad took a punt with Abhishek, a part-time bowler, bowling the important over. The idea was to take the ball away from the right-hander Stoinis. However, Stoinis started with back to back sixes before getting out. When Pooran came, it turned out to be a match-up in the batters’ favor. 

“It's important to target that 6th bowler, it's a batter's game, no risk, no reward, you have to work on the match-ups. I've played enough international cricket to know how to deal with situations,” Pooran spoke further about the situation.

The LSG skipper, Krunal Pandya also talked about the belief in his power-hitters and making the best out of the game situation. 

“At this level anything is possible, we had the belief and with players like Stoinis and Pooran, we had to believe. We knew we had to go and there was nothing special (was said during the timeout), luckily it paid off for us and Abhishek's over changed the momentum,” Pandya said in his post-match interview. 

The SRH skipper, Aiden Markram clearly had a distraught body language after the game. “Pressure is an interesting thing, and the guys tried their best. When you are put under pressure by high-quality players like Stoinis and Pooran, you are going to be tested,” he said about that game changing over. 

Markram also felt SRH posted a good score on the board after opting to bat first. 

“I thought it was a decent score, I thought 180 was par. We batted well, probably lacked one partnership that could have got us to the 200-run mark. The wicket got slower throughout the day, we would have taken this total at the start,” Markram explained. 

While Pooran and Stoinis were the catalysts towards the end, the 29-year old Prerak Mankad was the one who stabilized the chase at the top. Playing only his third IPL game, Mankad walked in at number three after Kyle Mayers’ sluggish knock of 2 from 14 balls. 

From thereon, Mankad scored an unbeaten 63 off 45 balls (strike-rate 142.2) and was adjudged as the player-of-the-match.

“Thanks to the management for giving me this opportunity. I haven't batted a lot at number 3 but have batted in the top four. I back my ability and strength, it worked out in the end,” Mankad said. 

Mankad also highlighted the contribution of Stoinis and Pooran towards the back end. “Whatever happens at the other end should not affect me, and because of Stoinis and Pooran we won this game,” he capped off the interview.