The crowd at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow were treated to the perfect buffet on Friday night, with spectacular fireworks from MS Dhoni as Chennai Super Kings posted a competitive 176 for 6 and home side Lucknow Super Giants chasing down the total with a classy 82 off 53 from skipper KL Rahul.
LSG's chase was set in motion by a dominant opening century stand - their first of the season - between Rahul and Quinton de Kock, who didn't allow any CSK bowler to get comfortable. They regularly collected boundaries to score 54 in the powerplay, they didn't let CSK fight back in the middle overs (as they have often done in this IPL), they didn't let the asking rate touch ten and by the time de Kock fell for 54 in the 15th over, they had a comfortable 43 off 30 balls.
Rahul also fell to a stunning catch at backward point by Ravindra Jadeja, but that didn't stop LSG from cruising home with eight wickets in hand and one over to spare.