Kartik Sharma’s fighting half-century ended on the losing side as Lucknow Super Giants stunned Chennai Super Kings at Ekana Stadium. LSG had already been eliminated from the tournament officially and it was not a crucial game for them whereas CSK is in the play-off race.
The young batter played reliably and Chennai put up a fighting total on the board but that wasn’t enough to stop Lucknow.
Another day another young talent delivers
With CSK having more young domestic talents in the squad this season, many have performed very well. Today it was another talent named Kartik Sharma. Batting first, Chennai struggled initially with losing 2 wickets in the powerplay and the score was 37/2 in the first 6 overs.
Then arrived Kartik Sharma who gave momentum to the CSK batting. While wickets were stumbling from one end, Sharma played calm and composed innings from the other end. He scored 71 runs off 42 balls before falling to Shahbaz Ahmed and stood tall for his team.
His sensational knock followed by a small cameo from Shivam Dube who scored 32 runs off 16 balls helped the team post a competitive total of 187 runs in 20 overs. Though it was a sufficient total it was not a massive one based on the pitch conditions as Lucknow chased the target comfortably within just 16.4 overs.
CSK jumps down the points table
After losing the game against LSG, CSK went down from 5th position to 6th position in the points table. Having played 12 matches and won 6 out of them, there are 2 remaining games in which Chennai must win both of them to qualify to the play-offs. Even one loss would put CSK on the edge of elimination.
In addition to some key players who have been ruled out due to injury, this difficult situation of 2 must win games has created more pressure among the team and its fans. No options left other than to wait for the next two games against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Gujarat Titans.
