Rain ruins LSG and Chennai showdown

(ESPNCRICINFO) - Rain had the final say in Lucknow, where MS Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings had taken the upper hand against the Super Giants after 19.2 action-packed overs of the first innings. CSK spinners ran through the home team's line-up, but 23-year-old Ayush Badoni scored a counter-attacking fifty before the game was called off at 6.56 pm local time.

The game had started 15 minutes late due to an afternoon shower, and the surface ended up assisting spin big time. Moeen

Ali dismissed Kyle Mayers for the second time in the season, and Maheesh Theekshana accounted for Manan Vohra and Krunal Pandya off successive deliveries in the sixth over. Moeen held on to a tough caught-andbowled chance to remove Karan Sharma, but the best wicket was Ravindra Jadeja bowling Marcus Stoinis with one that pitched outside the right-hander's leg stump and spun sharply to hit off, leaving the batter dumbfounded.

At 44 for 5 in the 10th over, the Super Giants were sinking but Badoni and Nicholas Pooran steadied the innings. They added 59 for the sixth wicket, but Pooran's contribution was only 14, with Badoni taking charge. He smashed two sixes off Theekshana and reached fifty with another six off Deepak Chahar in the 19th over to give the Super Giants a fighting chance.

Rain forced the players off the field in the 20th over of the first innings and did not ease up enough for play to resume, leaving both Super Kings and Super Giants with one point each from the contest. Both teams are on 11 points after ten games. before five wides meant the over cost 27. In all, Archer leaked 56 in four overs. Who knew then that Livingstone and Jitesh would eventually finish on the losing side. Some of the credit for that should also go to Piyush Chawla.

The fixture was also significant for the return of two fast bowlers. Chahar was fit again for CSK after missing six games because of a hamstring injury and returned figures of 0 for 41 in four overs. Mohsin Khan was named in the Super Giants XI for the first time this season, after spending almost the entire year since the previous IPL recovering from injury, but did not get the chance to bowl because of the bad weather.

Piyush Chawla spins a web

Having gone for 14 off his first seven balls - including three fours by Shikhar Dhawan - the experienced Chawla hit back in the eighth over of the innings. He tossed the ball up again to invite Dhawan down the track, but this was a wrong'un. Dhawan was beaten and stumped for an attacking 30. Chawla went on to put the lid on Kings' scoring over the next few overs, finishing with 2 for 29. That spell included subtle changes of pace and constant use of variations; Short was his second victim, misreading a googly to be bowled for 27. Livingstone and Jitesh got together thereafter, but Chawla would still be one up on them come the end of the game.