Ayush Badoni smashed a quick-fire unbeaten half-century to help Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) recover to a respectable 167/7 against Delhi Capitals after left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav sizzled with a three-wicket haul in the IPL on Friday.
Returning to the side after missing three matches due to a groin niggle, Kuldeep picked three wickets while giving away 20 runs and conceding no boundaries in his quota of four overs.
His victims included skipper KL Rahul, Marcus Stoinis and the dangerous Nicholas Pooran.
Khaleel Ahmed (2/41), who landed the early blow, Ishant Sharma (1/36) and Mukesh Kumar (1/41) also took wickets to leave LSG reeling at 94/7.
But then Badoni took the onus upon himself to resurrect the LSG innings. He smashed five boundaries and a six and alongside Arshad Khan (20 off 16 balls)stitched a 73-run unbeaten stand.
Opting to bat, Quinton de Kock had started strong with four boundaries but was dismissed by Khaleel with a leg-before wicket decision in the third over.
Devdutt Padikkal's wretched run continued as he became Khaleel's second victim of the day. The pacer pinned Padikkal in front of middle and leg for his fifth consecutive single-figure score.
Khaleel had the opportunity to make it two out of two but the pacer dropped Marcus Stoinis on 0 off his own delivery in the very next ball.
However, Rahul continued to collect boundaries at the other end, taking his side to 57/2 in the powerplay.
But the introduction of Kuldeep in the eighth over helped trigger a batting collapse,
The left-arm spinner first bowled a nicely tossed up delivery with Stoinis throwing his hands at it only to get a leading edge that flew straight to Ishant at backward point.
He then bamboozled the in-form Pooran, who looked clueless as the ball uprooted the off stump.
The batting collapse forced the hosts to send Deepak Hooda as an Impact Substitute but Kuldeep picked up his third wicket in eight balls to get ride of Rahul (39), completely deflating the LSG batting.
Delhi bowlers choked the LSG batters as the boundaries dried up.
Ishant and Mukesh, who also returned to the Delhi playing XI after recovering from an injury, joined the act accounting for Hooda and Krunal Pandya respectively.
