IPL 2023: Lucknow Super Giants eclipsed Mumbai Indians by five runs in Lucknow on Tuesday, thanks to Mohsin Khan's brilliant last over that allowed the hosts to defend 11 runs. Meanwhile, he dedicated the victory to his ailing father.
Architect of Lucknow Super Giants' (LSG) thrilling five-run win over record former five-time champion Mumbai Indians (MI), left-arm pacer Mohin Khan on Tuesday dedicated his performance to his ailing father, who was discharged from the hospital after spending ten days in the ICU. The 24-year-old from Uttar Pradesh had a sensational season last year, but he missed the domestic season and most of the Indian Premier League (IPL) this year due to a left shoulder injury.
Playing only his second match in the IPL 2023, Khan defended 11 runs off the final over against the destructive Tim David as LSG inched closer to the IPL playoffs with a five-run win over MI. "It's been a tough time as I was injured, playing after a year. My father got discharged from the ICU yesterday [Monday], and he was in the hospital for the last ten days, and I did it for him. He would have been watching. I'm grateful to the team and the support staff, Gautam [Gambhir] sir, Vijay [Dahiya] sir for playing me this game even though I did not do well in the last game," he said at the presentation.
Talking about his plan in the final over, Khan said: "The goal was to execute what I did in practice. Even Krunal was talking to me, and I told him the same. The run-up is the same. I did not change it in the last over. I was trying to calm myself down, not look at the scoreboard and bowl the six balls well. Since the wicket was gripping, I tried the slower ball, but I bowled two of those and then changed to the yorker, and it was reversing as well."
MI skipper Rohit Sharma said his team couldn't win the little moments and lost its way in the second half of the chase. "We didn't play well enough to win the game. Unfortunately, there were little moments in the game that we didn't win. We assessed the pitch well, and it was a good pitch to bat on, and that score was chaseable, and we lost our way in the second half of the innings," he said.
With Marcus Stoinis (89 off 47 balls) on song, Mumbai leaked 54 runs in the last three overs. "We gave too many runs at the back end, and the last three overs went for a few. But the way we started with the bat, we were in a good position to chase, but as I said, we lost our way in the second half. He [Stoinis] played well, kept hitting straight, which you need to do on a pitch like this. It was a brilliant knock from him," concluded Rohit.
(With inputs from PTI)