The 45th match of the TATA IPL 2023, Lucknow Super Giants Vs Chennai Super Kings ended in a damp squib as rain played spoilsport at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow. The teams were forced to share a point each after just 19.2 overs were bowled in the first innings.
CSK won the toss and elected to bowl first, making one change to their starting XI as Deepak Chahar replaced Akash Singh. Lucknow Super Giants, on the other hand, made four changes to their starting eleven, with Krunal Pandya leading the side in place of the injured KL Rahul. Ayush Badoni (59* off 33) played a brilliant innings under pressure to revive the home team's innings after they were reduced to 44/5 inside 10 overs.
For CSK, Moeen Ali, Maheesh Theekshana, and Matheesha Pathirana all chipped in with two wickets each while Ravindra Jadeja picked up one wicket to put in a disciplined bowling performance. The CSK pacers started off well, bowled with discipline, and didn't give the LSG openers much. MS Dhoni then introduced spin into the attack as early as the fourth over and the move combined with the pressure worked as Moeen Ali had Kyle Mayers caught at long off.
Spin struck again two overs later as Maheesh Theekshana cleaned up Manan Vohra, who shuffled way across and missed his swipe to see the stumps shattered, and he then had Krunal Pandya caught at first slip where Ajinkya Rahane pulled off a brilliant low catch. Ravindra Jadeja then joined the wicket-taking party as he cleaned up Marcus Stoinis with an absolute peach which left the LSG batter perplexed and stunned.
Ayush Badoni took on the CSK bowling attack and broke the shackles in the 15th over, heaving one over deep mid-wicket for the first six of the innings and taking 11 from the over. Badoni and Pooran took 10 from the next over by Matheesha Pathirana. Badoni then took on Theekshana, cracking a six and a four to accumulate 15 from the over as the fifty-run stand came up from 44 balls.
However, against the run of play, Pathirana struck to have Pooran caught at extra cover. CSK brought on Ambti Rayudu as their Impact Player, replacing Theekshana in the 18th over. Badoni thought went from strength to strength and brought up his fifty with a four and a thumping six over deep mid-wicket off Chahar and then followed up with another thumping six over extra cover to make it 20 off the penultimate over.
Pathirana had K Gowtham caught at long on off the second ball of the final over before rain gods interrupted play. The rains didn't relent and in the end, they forced the match to be abandoned. LSG had reached 125/7 from 19.2 overs with Badoni unbeaten on 59 off 33 balls. Both teams had to settle for a point each due to the unfortunate weather conditions.