Pune: Opener Quinton de Kock slammed a 29-ball-50 but Lucknow Super Giants almost frittered away a solid start before some lusty hitting in a 30-run penultimate over took them to 176 for 7 against Kolkata Knight Riders in an IPL game here on Saturday. De Kock, who was involved in a terrible mix up with skipper KL Rahul, who got a 'Diamond Duck' (out for 0 without facing a ball), redeemed himself with an innings studded with four boundaries and three maximums.
He added 71 with Deepak Hooda (41 off 27 balls) to give LSG a good start after being invited to bat. Hooda made up for the loss of Rahul's with his back to-back boundaries over extra cover off Shivam Mavi (1/50 in 4 overs), while De Kock too joined in with a special treatment to Tim Southee, clobbering him for two fours and a six in the 3rd over.
Left-arm spinner Anukul Roy and pacer Harshit Rana were next in line as De Kock smashed the former for a four before lunching into the latter for a four and two sixes to take LSG to their best score in the powerplays this season, a 66 for one. De Kock, however, couldn't stay much longer as he was holed out in deep only two balls after completing his fifty.
Hooda, who hit four boundariers and two sixes in his entertaining 27-ball knock tat took LSG past 100-run mark before falling to a Andre Russell delivery with his miscued pull ending in safe hands of skipper Shreyas Iyer. Krunal Pandya then tried to keep the run-rate high and slammed two fours before ending at the hands of Aaron Finch at deep point.
The decision to promote Ayush Badoni (15 not out off 18) didn't bear result as the young Delhi batter was under pressue after a quiet over and couldn't find his rhythm with runs drying up between 12th to 16th over. However, Marcus Stoinis (28 off 14 balls) changed things when he clobbered Mavi for three successive sixes before holing out. However, new man Jason Holder (13 off 4 balls) slammed the next two balls for two more maximums as the 19th over yielded 30 runs for LSG.
In the bowling front, KKR missed the experience of Umesh Yadav, who missed out due to a muscle pull, with Hooda and de Kock going hammer and tongs early on. However, Andrew Russell (2/22) was rewarded for bowling back of length , while Sunil Narine (20/1) and Tim Southee (1/28) also kept things tight but the rest of bowlers bled plenty in their stipulated overs.
Brief Scores: LSG 176 for 7 (Quinton de Kock 50 off 29 balls, Deepak Hooda 41 off 27 balls, Andre Russell 2/22) vs KKR.
