Lucknow Super Giants vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, 61st Match - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

It isn't about how you start. It's about how you finish that matters. After losing a heart-stopper to DC in Vizag, LSG went onto win 5 of their next 7 games and looked firm favourites to seal a spot in the playoffs. And when they needed a bit of mid-season-steadiness, they ran out of gas and ended up losing their last 4 games. SRH aren't complaining though. They were outplayed in Hyderabad earlier this season, but have done well to return the favour to LSG. Just one playoff spot remains now. All eyes will be on Wednesday as MI take on DC at the Wankhede. Going to be a blockbuster knock-out clash that. Well, before that we got CSK taking on RR in Delhi tomorrow. Do remember to join us for all the fun. Until next time, goodbye from the trio of Raju Peethala, Akshay Maanay and Abhinav Guha. Special shout out to our scoring expert Praveen as well. Cheers!!

Abhishek Sharma | Player of the Match: I spoke to him after the game and it is all good now. If we batted first, I might have had other plans but chasing such a total we had a clear plan. If you ask any player who has been doing well for the team, chasing 200 plus something you should be able to win the powerplay. I wanted to express myself and if I do well, I know the team is gonna do well as well. It was the same plan I had in international cricket as well. Just express myself and knock it around.

Pat Cummins | SRH skipper: We conceded a few more than we would have liked, it is a good wicket but we were confident about the chase. Eshan Malinga has been great and huge asset for us as a team. His execution has been really good. At times, when they are at their best, it doesn't look like they are taking too many risks. We know we are a good side when we play our best. Few lessons to learn.

Stats by Deepu Narayanan
First instance of 200+ target successfully chased down in four attempts in IPL games in Lucknow

Fourth time SRH has successfully chased down 200+ target in IPL, joint third most with RR behind Punjab Kings (7) and Mumbai Indians (5)

Second instance of 200+ target successfully chased down against LSG after Delhi Capitals in Vizag earlier in the season

Daniel Vettori | SRH head coach: Particularly after the extended break, to see the team get back and pull off what was quite a difficult chase was great. (On Abhishek Sharma’s batting) We are used to it, he is incredible, the big challenge for teams is when he gets through the initial overs and then takes the spinners on. Usually he is successful there, his strike rate is incredible. Certain people step up at certain times, it has been unfortunate for us this season. Kamindu and Eshan Malinga were brilliant tonight, they complemented what Abhishek and Klaasen pulled off. Some pitches allow you to take the aggressive role, we also understand that teams are going to come hard at us, every team does it in a different way. We wanted Abhishek and Head to go out and play aggressive and the rest to play according to the game situation. Sometimes wickets allow you to play in that way. It’s probably understanding the conditions, a lot of planning went into on how to bowl to those two, I don’t want a style change but we I want them to adapt better. (On whether we will see Travis Head in the last two games) Head is in quarantine.

Rishabh Pant | LSG captain: Definitely it could have been one of our best seasons but coming into the tournament we had a lot of gaps, injuries and as a team we decided to not talk about that, but it became difficult to fill those gaps for us. The way we planned the auction, if we would have had the same bowling.. but this is cricket, sometimes things go your way and sometimes they don't, we take pride in the way we played and take the positives from the season than the negative side. We have a strong batting line up, have enough firepower and that is the biggest positive for the season, even for bowlers.. a lot of times they bowled in good areas but they were patchy. We knew we were 10 runs short because the wicket was playing well, like I said before, we are playing well in patches and unable to close the momentum whenever it turned up on our side. The first half of the season we played really well but the second half it became tougher and tougher to catch up with the teams on the brighter side. The bowler Rathi has come up nicely for us, his first season, the way he bowled, he is one of the positives, but you need to keep improving yourself and get better and better as the seasons go.

23:29 local, 17:59 GMT, 23:29 IST: 58 off the first 5 overs was okay. And then, the next 2 overs went for 40 runs. LSG never quite recovered from that phase. Ravi Bishnoi got belted for 4 successive sixes, with Abhishek Sharma notching up an 18-ball 50 while at it. After his onslaught, SRH needed someone to play smart till the end. While Klaasen aced that role, Ishan Kishan and Kamindu played good supporting roles at crucial intervals. LSG were 81/0 after 7 overs, and failed to sustain the momentum through the middle overs. They did find some momentum in the final over, but it didn't prove to be enough as SRH became the 4th visiting side to win a game chasing this season here in Lucknow. Unfortunately though for LSG, it is their 5th loss from their last 6 games. Post-match reactions coming up, stick around...

William ORourke to Nitish Reddy, 1 run, punches to backward point and hurries across for a quick single. SRH win by 6 wickets as LSG become the 5th team to be eliminated.

William ORourke to Nitish Reddy, FOUR, a gift for Nitish Reddy. Juicy full toss outside off, he looks to drive straight and gets a thick outside edge that flies away in the gap between the keeper and short third

William ORourke [2.0-0-26-1] is back into the attack

Thakur to Aniket Verma, FOUR, short and well wide of off, Aniket Verma slashes and gets it wide of the diving fielder at third man. Digvesh Rathi tries his best, but ball wins the race...

Uh-oh! Kamindu Mendis is walking off. He hobbles along with his mates as Nitish comes in...

Thakur to Kamindu Mendis, 1 run, jams the yorker to cover and hurries through for a quick single. The fielder aims and misses, had that hit Mendis was a goner. Mendis looks to have done some damage to his hammy and is getting treated by the phsio

Thakur to Aniket Verma, 1 run, short and wide of off, Aniket slices it down to third man

Aniket Verma, right handed bat, comes to the crease

Thakur to Klaasen, out Caught by Pant!! Finally gets his yorker right does Shardul Thakur. Klaasen looks to slice the drive and ends up getting a feather of an outside edge through to the keeper. Pant was super confident about the edge and went up straightaway. Umpire Kannur Swaroopanand walked up to Michael Gough and had a word before going upstairs. The bat did hit the turf, but nearly got off the edge of the toe before flying to the right of Pant. Klaasen c Pant b Thakur 47(28) [4s-4 6s-1]

Thakur to Klaasen, THATS OUT!! Caught!!

Pant reviews for caught behind? The umpires get together and send it upstairs. Okay! It's not a review from LSG. It is an umpire's review for bump ball in fact. A spike on the UltraEdge as the bat hits the turf. A tiny outside edge and Klaasen has to go...

Thakur to Klaasen, FOUR, a juicy full toss outside off, Klaasen stays still and powers the pull over mid-wicket. Bounced inches inside the boundary ropes...

Thakur to Klaasen, FOUR, Heinrich Klaasen and Rohit Sharma are experts at making boundary looking pretty easy, Bends low, meets the ball on the full and swipes it flat over square leg for a one-bounce boundary