LUCKNOW: Chennai Super Kings’ push for a playoff berth hit a roadblock at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow. On a pitch with plenty of bounce and carry, Lucknow Super Giants found an unlikely hero in left-arm pacer Akash Singh, who was playing his first match of this IPL. The former CSK pacer bowled four on the trot – three in Powerplay – and got the wickets of Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sanju Samson and Urvil Patel to finish with figures of 3-26.While Akash’s shortpitched stuff provided the early jolt, the Australian opening duo of Mitchell Marsh and Josh Inglis rode the same bounce to finish off CSK during their chase. The same short balls that CSK batters were finding tough to handle, Marsh effortlessly sent past the boundary line as LSG galloped away to 86-0 in the powerplay. Marsh (90 off 38 balls), who has grown up playing his cricket on the bouncy WACA pitch in Perth, chose CSK’s bowler of the season Anshul Kamboj for special treatment.In the fifth over of the innings, he kept pulling Kamboj for four consecutive sixes that took the fight out of CSK. He finished it off with one more boundary, taking 28 from the over. Inglis at the other end, also kept finding the boundary, albeit playing second fiddle, and LSG didn’t commit the same mistake that they did at Chepauk on Sunday, throwing the game away after getting 91 in Powerplay.Marsh and Inglis put on 135 runs in 11.4 overs and once they were dismissed off successive balls, there was a period of lull. Nicholas Pooran though finished off the sevenwicket in the 17th over taking 22 off Kamboj, leaving CSK in a must-win situation in their last two games against SRH and GT to entertain qualification hopes. While the openers cornered the glory for LSG on Friday, no praise is enough for 24-year-old Akash, whose career has often been plagued by injuries. He, in fact, had played six matches for CSK as injuryreplacement in 2023, but was later released by the franchise.Akash kept bowling the hard length and Ruturaj failed in his pull shot which gave the pacer his first wicket. Sanju was the big wicket as his flick was taken by deep square leg. After CSK finished Powerplay on a paltry 37-2, the in-form Urvil, too, failed to deal with the short ball and was dismissed with the score reading 52-3.For CSK, the only bright spot was Kartik Sharma. The right-hander, acquired for Rs 14.2 crores, showed great temperament against a quality LSG pace attack. His 42-ball 71 provided the impetus that CSK so desperately needed to try and make a game of it.
