MUMBAI, India, CMC – Fortune favored West Indies all-rounder Kyle Mayers. He played a starring role with the bat on his debut in the Indian Premier League on Saturday and set up a 50-run win for Lucknow Super Giants against Delhi Capitals.
Mayers smashed two fours and seven sixes in 73 from 38 balls and anchored LSG to 193 for six from their 20 overs after they were put in to bat in their season opener at the BRSABVE Cricket Stadium in Lucknow.
England speedster Mark Wood then sparkled with the ball with a fiery spell of five for 14 in his allotted four overs, enabling LSG to restrict the Capitals to 143 for nine.
Australia international David Warner hit the top score of 56 off 48 balls, including seven fours, and South Africa international Rilee Roussouw made 30.
Mayers was fortunate when Khaleel Ahmed dropped him on 14 at short third man off pacer Chetan Sakariya in the final over of the Power Play, which ended with LSG on 30 for one, having lost their captain K.L. Rahul at deep backward square leg off the same bowler in the fourth over.
Mayers got into gear when he smashed a couple of sixes off pacer Mukesh Kumar and then went after Axar Patel, hitting a four and a six off the left-arm spinner to provide momentum for the innings.
He smacked a delivery from Kuldeep Yadav over a deep square leg and brought up his 50 off only 28 balls.
Mayers continued to deal in sixes, and he struck two more off Axar and then another off Kuldeep before Axar bowled him with a brilliant delivery that turned miles in the 12th over.
LSG was precisely 100 with 51 balls remaining, and West Indies left-hander Nicholas Pooran gave legs to charge in the second half of the innings with 36 from 21 balls.
Warner and India international Prithvi Shaw got the Capitals off to a flier, and they unfurled crunching drives, powerful pulls, and silky flicks to take 40 from the first four overs.
When Wood was introduced, he bowled Shaw with an in-swinger, the exact delivery that sent back Mitchell Marsh to bring LSG back into the match and send the Capitals to 47 for two at the end of the Power Play.
Wood bounced out Sarfaraz Khan, who was caught at fine leg, but Rossouw breathed momentum into the innings to take the visitors to 75 for three at the halfway mark.
Ravi Bishnoi dismissed Rossouw for 30 in the 12th over and then sent back West Indies Twenty20 International captain Rovman Powell for one to jolt the Capitals, and they never recovered.
In the other match, Trinidad & Tobago spinner Sunil Narine and Jamaican all-rounder Andre Russell were part of the Kolkata Knight Riders side that lost when Punjab Kings beat them by seven runs under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method.
Narine took one for 40 from his four overs, but Russell did not bowl after KKR won the toss and decided to field, and the Kings rattled up 191 for five.
Russell struck three fours and two sixes in 35 from 19 balls, and Narine was seven not out when the rain ended the match with KKR 196 for seven.
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