CHENNAI, MAY 25
Mumbai fast bowler Akash Madhwal grabbed astonishing figures of 5-5 to help the Indians eliminate Lucknow Super Giants from the Indian Premier League with a thumping 81-run win on Wednesday.
Madhwal's brilliant bowling and three bizarre run-outs saw Lucknow get bowled out for 101 with more than three overs to spare as Australian Marcus Stoinis top-scored with 40.
Mumbai, which won the toss and elected to bat in the knockout game, scored 182-8 with Cameron Green (41) and Suryakumar Yadav (33) dominating the first half of the innings. Impact player Nehal Wadhera smashed two fours and two sixes in his cameo of 23 off 12 balls in the death overs to give Mumbai above-par total on a slow wicket.
Mumbai will now face defending champion Gujarat Titans on Friday with the winner advancing to Sunday's final against Chennai Super Kings.
"Akash Madhwal was part of the season last year, (but) he didn't get to play," Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma said. "We knew what he had ... I was confident he could get the job done for us. As a team, we enjoyed the fielding. We want to keep getting better and throw ourselves. We knew coming to Chennai, one man won't take us through."
Lucknow's decision to leave out opening batter Quinton de Kock from the crunch game backfired as its impact player Kyle Mayers (18) holed out at long on within the powerplay after Madhwal had struck with his fifth ball by having Prerak Mankad (3) caught at third man.
Captain Krunal Pandya struggled for 11 deliveries before he too played a rash shot and skied a catch at long on against leg-spinner Piyush Chawla as Lucknow slumped to 69-3 in the ninth over.
"Everything started when I played that shot, that was not on and I completely take all the blame," Pandya said, while defending the inclusion of Mayers because of West Indian batter's better record in Chennai. "The wicket was the same. We just had to bat better, just take that responsibility."
Madhwal dealt the final blow to Lucknow's chase in the next over when he clean bowled Ayush Badoni and found the edge of Nicholas Pooran off the next delivery.
Stoinis, who was watching wickets falling from the other end, then got run out when he couldn't make it at the striker's end for the second run after a mid-wicket collision with Deepak Hooda.
Two smart pieces of ground fielding by Green earned Mumbai two more run-outs of Krishnappa Gowtham and Hooda before Madhwal sealed the game with a perfect yorker to clean bowled No. 11 batter Mohsin Khan.
Earlier, Green and Yadav combined in a 66-run stand before Afghanistan fast bowler Naveen-ul-Haq (4-38) and Yash Thakur (3-34) pegged back Mumbai.
Sharma and Ishan Kishan fell against Naveen and Thakur inside the batting powerplay before Naveen returned and claimed two vital wickets in his return spell.
Yadav got deceived by Naveen's slower leg-cutter and holed out at long-on and Green was also outdone by another slower delivery from Afghan fast bowler and got clean bowled. Tim David labored to score run-a-ball before he was dismissed off a contentious high full toss of Thakur in the 17th over but Wadhera ensured Mumbai got to a challenging total with his quickfire knock.
