Evin Lewis blasted the fastest fifty this edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) as Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) completed a thrilling run chase to Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to back-to-back defeats, despite the defending champions scoring 210/7 at the Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai, on Thursday.
Chasing a target of 211, LSG chased down the target with three balls to spare. For LSG, Evin Lewis and Quinton de Kock scored half-centuries while KL Rahul also played a fine cameo at the top of the order.
LSG having raced away to 98/0 in the first 10, it was South African pacer Dwaine Pretorius (2-31) who kept CSK in the hunt in the middle overs.
Lewis and Hooda kept the chase alive, both muscled a boundary each off Dwayne Bravo in the 16th over. Pretorius gave away only nine in the 17th and Bravo, after getting hit for a six, sent back Hooda in the 18th.
With 34 runs needed from the final two overs, CSK decided to throw the ball to Shivam Dube for the penultimate over and the decision backfired spectacularly with Ayush Badoni and Lewis wreaking havoc.
Badoni thumped him for 6 off the first delivery and Lewis (55 not out off 23 balls) then brought up the fastest fifty of IPL 2022, from just 23 balls, as he smashed 4, 4 and 6 off the last 3 balls with a total of 25 runs coming from the over.
With just 9 needed from the final over, debutant Mukesh Choudhary (0/39) started off with two wides before Badoni (19 not out off 9 balls) smacked another maximum and wrapped up the win soon after with 3 balls to spare.
Earlier, CSK managed to post a total of 210 for seven against the LSG. Robin Uthappa led the way with a fine 50 while Shivam Dube and Moeen Ali also played handy cameos to take CSK past the 200-run mark.
Robin Uthappa scored a 25-ball half-century in the first innings as CSK got off to a flyer despite losing the toss but it wasn’t enough as Lucknow chased down the total in style. Chennai have now lost back-to-back games at the start of the season for the very first time in the IPL.