The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 clash between Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) has been called off due to rain. CSK had opted to bowl first and at one stage reduced 44/5 in 9.4 overs but the partnership between Nicholas Pooran (20 off 31) and Ayush Badoni (59* off 33) helped the home team steady the ship.
LSG were on course to post a fighting total on a turning track with the scoreboard reading 125/7 in 19.2 overs which is when the covers were called on due to a drizzle. Even though covers were called off after a while, rain returned after some time and the match could not be resumed thereafter.
For CSK, it was once again the spinners who had a great outing with the ball. Moeen Ali picked 2 wickets for 13 runs while Maheesh Theekshana scalped 2 for 37 in his 4 overs. In addition, Ravindra Jadeja was also amongst the wickets and picked up a wickets while conceding 13 runs. However, in a surprising decision on a track that seemed to offer assistance to the spinners Dhoni decided to not bowl out Jadeja and the left-arm spinner ended up bowling just 3 overs.
With match number 45 of IPL 2023 ending in a no result, both sides were awarded a point each which has added more drama in an interesting points table this season. Before this game, five teams were at 10 points but now three teams remain on 10 points with both the participating franchises in this fixture moving to 11 points.
However, LSG are placed second on the table as of now when compared to CSK who are placed third on the table. This is because of Lucknow's better net run rate of +0.639 compared to CSK whose net run rate stands at +0.329. LSG will play their next game on May 7 (Sunday) while CSK will be up against MI a day before that on May 6 (Saturday).