Pooran 50 not enough as Hope’s Delhi win

DELHI, India (CMC):

NICHOLAS POORAN struck his second half-century of the Indian Premier League to pass 400 runs for the campaign but Lucknow Super Giants crashed to a 19-run loss to Shai Hope’s Delhi Capitals to leave their chances of a playoff spot hanging in the balance.

Asked to chase 209 at Arun Jaitley Stadium yesterday, Super Giants came up short with the left-handed Pooran top-scoring with a superb 27-ball 61 and number eight Arshad Khan lashing an unbeaten 58 off 33 deliveries.

However, they were the only two to pass 20 as new-ball pacer Ishant Sharma produced a spell of three for 34 from four overs to stymie the run chase.

The defeat left Super Giants seventh on 12 points with a game remaining while Delhi are fifth on 14 points, but are also still in danger of missing out on the top four.

Choosing to bat first, Delhi got half-centuries from opener Abishek Porel (58) and Tristan Stubbs (57 not out) as they reached 208 for four off their 20 overs.

Hope chipped in with 38 from 27 deliveries while Rishabh Pant blasted 33 from 23 balls.

Emerging Australian superstar Jake Fraser-McGurk fell cheaply without scoring to the second ball of the game without a run on the board but Hope arrived at number three to help revive the innings, posting 92 for the second wicket with Porel, who faced 33 balls and struck five fours and four sixes.

Hope counted three fours and two sixes before perishing in the ninth over, and Stubbs then controlled the back end by anchoring a 47-run fourth-wicket stand with Pant and a 50-run, unbroken fifth-wicket partnership with Axar Patel (14 not out), striking three fours and four sixes along the way.

In reply, Super Giants slumped to 44 for four in the fifth over before Pooran arrived to turn the run chase around.

The former West Indies white-ball captain added 27 for the fifth wicket with Ayush Badoni (6) and 30 for the sixth wicket with Krunal Pandya (18) while punching half-dozen fours and four sixes.

His dismissal, however, taken low down at extra cover, set the Super Giants back and Stubbs’ late flurry comprising three fours and five sixes proved inadequate.

Pooran has now scored 424 runs at an average of 60.