Lucknow Super Giants queered the pitch for Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2026 on Friday
in Lucknow.
The five-time champions lost by seven wickets and will need to win their remaining two matches against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Gujarat Titans to harbour hopes of making the playoffs. A victory in Lucknow would have benefited CSK but they will now have to hope that the results of some other teams go their way.
CSK have 12 points from 12 matches and will face stiff competition from Rajasthan Royals (12 off 11 matches)
and Punjab Kings (13 off 12 matches) in the battle for the last-four.
Chasing 188, Lucknow found themselves in a slightly tricky situation after losing three quick wickets and needed 24 off as many balls in the closing stages. But Nicholas Pooran turned out to be the saviour, smashing four consecutive sixes off Anshul Kamboj to leave CSK shell-shocked.
If it were Mumbai Indians on Thursday, Lucknow too showed their abilities, though it came a bit too late in the day. But the two eliminated sides have played spoilsport against teams chasing playoff spots.
Marsh rules
Run-scoring wasn’t as easy as on some other pitches in this IPL, but Lucknow openers Mitchell Marsh (90 off 38) and Josh Inglis (36 off 32) gave them a rousing start with a 135-run stand in 11.4 overs.
Marsh’s nine boundaries and seven sixes gave the Lucknow crowd something to cheer about. He loves batting on pitches that offer true bounce and enjoyed his stint on Friday.
He charged at Kamboj in the fifth over, as he allowed the Australian swinging room and flayed him over cover for the first six of the over. This put Kamboj off his length.
Marsh then smacked Kamboj for another three sixes in a row. The fifth ball was a dot. The sixth was a full-toss down leg and Marsh smashed another boundary to cap a 28-run over. CSK never really recovered from that onslaught and looked bereft of ideas.
Earlier, they recovered through Kartik Sharma’s prudent 71, after their top-
order stumbled against Lucknow’s hard length strategy, to post 187/5.
But the opening partnership did the trick for Lucknow.
“Josh certainly feels like he takes the pressure off me with the way he goes about it. And we’ve obviously kind of grown up together playing for Western Australia for the last probably eight years. So we know each other very well,” Marsh said later.
