Mukul Choudhary scored 14 off the final over to guide LSG to a nerve-wracking victory.
A 21-year-old batter from Rajasthan rose to the occasion just when his team needed it the most. Last night, the Lucknow Super Giants’ (LSG) youngster, Mukul Choudhary, delivered a match-winning knock in only his third appearance of the IPL 2026. His 54 not out off 27 balls saw the side clinch a thriller against the three-time champions, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), at their home ground.
While chasing a total of 182, LSG had found them in some serious trouble, losing half of their side in under 13 overs. The debutant, who had made an 11-ball 14 in his IPL debut, had entered the crease at No.7, when the Giants still needed 78 runs more off the remaining 43 balls. However, after a big over from Navdeep Saini to concede three boundaries to Ayush Badoni, two of KKR’s spinners, Anukul Roy and Sunil Narine, mounted the pressure back on the visitors in the subsequent overs.
Following Badoni’s dismissal in the 15th over, the veteran Caribbean all-rounder gave away just 1 run in the next, and sent Mohammed Shami back in the pavilion to reduce the team to 128/7. But what followed next entirely changed the game in Lucknow’s favour as they went on to claim the fixture by three wickets on the final ball.
Initially, Mukul was beaten three times in four balls by Narine. But as soon as the right-hander got to face the KKR pacers, he took them on and accelerated with a fierce strike rate. The Men in Purple seamers mainly focused on back of length deliveries, yorkers, and slower short balls against the wicketkeeper-batter. But as and when they missed executing them under pressure, he easily cleared the fence to keep LSG alive in the chase.
Following the 11 and 13-run overs from Vaibhav Arora and Kartik Tyagi, he amassed a total of 16 runs off the penultimate over from the marquee Australian all-rounder Cameron Green, who had just resumed bowling in the IPL 2026. The KKR bowling unit had stuck to their yorker attempts and back of the length deliveries, but the margin of error was very low, and most of them ended up being pitched in the slot.
ALSO READ:
After witnessing a Mukul Choudhary masterclass at the Eden Gardens Stadium, who single-handedly snatched two crucial points for LSG from the jaws of defeat, finisher Rovman Powell opened up on key tactics that KKR missed out on to restrict the hard-hitter.
He shared how bowling wide yorkers or wide slower balls might have helped the hosts to stop the run flow. Notably, the KKR pacers mostly bowled Mukul at the stumps, but drifting away from his arc could have helped them in denying the maximums.
“I think we could have gone to a wide plan just as we went for the last ball, the last over. Maybe we could have gone to the wide plan after we realized that he’s hitting those short deliveries. But it’s us sitting here looking back, talking in hindsight, and I’m not one that loves to talk in hindsight,” stated Powell.
For more updates, follow CricXtasy on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
