Urvil Patel smashed the Lucknow Super Giants bowlers to a pulp and his colleagues complemented his effort well as the Chennai Super Kings pulled off a five-wicket victory on Sunday.

The win took Chennai to 12 points, a huge step forward as they prepare to fight it out in the business end of the race for the playoffs. With Royal Challengers Bengaluru edging past Mumbai Indians in the other match of the day, Lucknow, along with Mumbai, no longer have any chance of making the playoffs.

Sunday’s game in Chennai was about two explosive innings. First, Josh Inglis launched the Lucknow innings with a breathtaking 85 off 33 balls. It enabled the visitors to post 203/8 in 20 overs. In the second half, Urvil responded with a 65 off 23 balls to give Chennai’s steep chase the early thrust it needed.

The Lucknow bowlers pulled things back admirably once Urvil was dismissed, but poor fielding in the death overs cost them dear. Eventually, Shivam Dube muscled back-to-back sixes off part-time spinner Aiden Markram to take Chennai to the target with four balls to spare.

Record made & missed

Urvil’s hammer hits were the highlight of the match. He batted like a man possessed and reached his fifty off just 13 balls. By doing so, he matched Yashasvi Jaiswal’s record for the fastest IPL half-century.

The 27-year-old, who hit eight sixes and two fours, could have solely owned the record for the fastest IPL fifty as he was on 41 off just 8 balls at one stage. But to score the next 9 runs, Urvil used up five deliveries.

Once he reached fifty, Urvil took out a piece of paper from his pocket which had “This is for you Papa” written on it.