IPL 2024 - Ravi Bishnoi and Krunal Pandya impact with 3 wickets in 2 overs against GT

After posting just 163 runs on the board and losing 5 wickets in their 20 overs, Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) knew they had to start strong with the ball against Gujarat Titans (GT) in Match 21 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. And sure enough, after Sai Sudharsan and Shubman Gill got decent starts, the LSG bowlers came in and took wickets, sending back their top order at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium.

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While GT captain Gill was clean bowled by Yash Thakur for 19 runs, it was after that the spinners were introduced and Ravi Bishnoi did the unimaginable - he took a one-handed screamer. In the 7.2 over, Kane Williamson had just come to the crease after Gill's wicket and he hardly got time to settle. It was another in-drifter and a fullish-length delivery to which Williamson went forward to drive. However, he did not get to the pitch of the delivery and ended up chipping it in the air. Bishnoi, who had just completed his run-up, flew to his right in his follow-through and stuck his right hand out to snaffle it out of thin air to send back Williamson for just a run.

Soon after his over was done, Krunal Pandya came in and in the 8.1 over, sent back set batter Sai Sudharsan for 31 off 23 balls. Sudharsan rocked back to pull and lost his shape in the process. The bit of extra bounce saw him top-edge it to deep midwicket where Bishnoi took a safe catch. GT lost their top three within a span of 14 deliveries.

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Pandya wasn't satisfied and also got the better of Sharath BR in the same over. The batter went down low to play a premeditated sweep shot. It lobbed up in the air off the top edge and Ayush Badoni came in from deep backward square leg to gobble it up.

At the time of writing this article, Krunal Pandya also sent back Darshan Nalkande for 12 and has taken 3 wickets, giving away just 11 runs in his four overs.

After 14 overs, GT managed to score just 92 runs, losing five wickets and if Gujarat Titans want to win, they need 72 runs in 36 balls.

Teams:

Lucknow Super Giants (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock, KL Rahul(w/c), Devdutt Padikkal, Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Krunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi, Yash Thakur, Naveen-ul-Haq, Mayank Yadav

Subs: Manimaran Siddharth, Deepak Hooda, Amit Mishra, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Arshad Khan

Gujarat Titans (Playing XI): Shubman Gill(c), Sharath BR(w), Sai Sudharsan, Vijay Shankar, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad, Umesh Yadav, Spencer Johnson, Darshan Nalkande, Mohit Sharma

Subs: Kane Williamson, Abhinav Manohar, Matthew Wade, Manav Suthar, Jayant Yadav