KLassy Rahul smashes ton in his 100th IPL game

Lucknow Super Giants skipper KL Rahul made batting look like a walk in the park with a 56-ball century in his 100th IPL game to put five-time champions Mumbai Indians all but out of the league with an 18-run win on Saturday.

Rahul’s unbeaten 60-ball 103, his third three-figure mark across all editions of IPL, propelled Lucknow to a commanding score of 199 for four and then his bowlers joined the party to restrict MI to 181 for nine in 20 overs.

With six consecutive defeats, the tournament is as good as over for the league’s most popular team, even before it has reached the halfway stage. Rohit Sharma’s (6) nightmare of a tournament continued while Ishan Kishan (13 off 17 balls) is certainly feeling the pressure of the Rs 15.25 crore price tag as he played on a Marcus Stoinis delivery and displayed his frustration by smashing the foam-based boundary rope.

Surya’s dismissal, after he failed to dispatch a Ravi Bishnoi long-hop, was the final nail in the MI coffin.

Lucknow’s fast bowlers Avesh Khan (3/30 in 4 overs) and Dushmantha Chameera (1/48 in 4 overs) got good support from medium pacers Holder (1/34 in 4 overs) and Stoinis (1/13 in 2 overs). Lucknow have four wins from six games while MI have lost a dozen games on the trot for the first time in 15 editions of IPL.

With the kind of team they have assembled, it will only get worse from hereon as there is no plan B, and more importantly, the players to execute the plan.

For Rahul, both as a batter and skipper, the IPL is proving to be the platform that he desperately needed to enhance his captaincy credentials as far as the national team is concerned.