KL Rahul celebrates his century against LSG
Lucknow Super Giants captain KL Rahul announced his comeback in form in grand fashion as he hit a century in the 26th match of the IPL 2022 against Mumbai Indians here at the Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai on Saturday. The talisman smashed 103 runs in just 60 balls with the help of nine boundaries and five sixes. LSG played with a strike rate of 171. With his century Lucknow manged to post a mamoth total of 199/4 in 20 overs.
Here are few records that KL Rahul broke with his century against Mumbai Indians.
- KL Rahul becomes the first player to score a century the 100th IPL match.
- KL Rahul is the fourth player to score two centuries against the same oppenet - Chris Gayle vs Punjab, Virat Kohli vs Gujarat, David Warner vs KKR.
- KL Rahul is now the second captain to score more than one hundred in the history of IPL. First is Virat Kohli.
- KL Rahul is the first batsman to score hundred for Lucknow Super Giants in IPL history.
- KL Rahul is now second on the list of most centuries in the history of IPL. He and Sanju Samson both have three centuries to their name.
- KL Rahul is now second-fastest player to reach 3500 runs in IPL history after Chris Gayle.
On way to his hundred, he added 52 for the opening stand with Quinton de Kock (24 off 13 balls), 72 with Manish Pandey (38 off 29 balls), and another brisk 43 runs with Deepak Hooda (15 off 8 balls) for the fourth wicket. MI's fielding was perhaps their worst in the past four to five seasons and it didn't help matters that Rahul was in imperious form to make full use of it.
Most Hundreds in IPL 2022
Chris Gayle - 6 in 142 matches
Virat Kohli - 5 in 212 matches
Shane Watson - 4 in 145 matches
David Warner - 4 in 152 matches
Sanju Samson - 3 in 126 matches
AB de Villiers - 3 in 182 matches
KL Rahul - 3 in 100 matches
Bereft of credible options in the dug-out, it was only natural that the tournament's most successful skipper Rohit Sharma looked clearly out of ideas as his ploy of playing an extra spinner in left-arm orthodox Fabian Allen (1/46 in 4 overs) didn't quite work out. Jasprit Bumrah (0/24 in 4 overs) is manfully carrying the burden but one man can't save the team from the disaster that this season has turned out to be.
Otherwise, why would the MI skipper start with part-time off-spinner Tilak Varma, knowing that the Lucknow captain is a master player of slow bowlers. The six powerplay overs saw six different bowlers being used and de Kock should blame himself for wasting an opportunity to score a big one on a track that resembled a shirtfront.
There were too many short balls for Rahul to play the cuts and pulls at will and also the slog sweep, and not to forget some delectable drives when anything was pitched up. Twenty fours and seven sixes were testimony to MI's plight and the likes of Tymal Mills (0/54 in 3 overs), Jaydev Unadkat (2/32 in 4 overs) and Murugan Ashwin (1/33 in 4 overs) tried their best but could not succeed.
Sample this: Ashwin bowled a decent googly and Stoinis hit him for the biggest sixes. Allen bowled a wicket-to-wicket delivery and was swept behind square for a six by Rahul. Between overs 13 to 16, Rahul and company added 60 runs and it didn't help their cause that the five-time champions have had one of the worst days in the outfield, not being able to cut the boundaries even after getting hold of the ball.
Not having a Trent Boult, Krual Pandya or a Rahul Chahar is hurting MI badly and getting as many as 16 middle-of-the-road players for just 18 crore hasn't proved to be a wise business decision so far.
