Lucknow and Mumbai are facing each other at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. After winning the toss, the Rohit Sharma-led side elected to field first. After scoring a breathtaking hundred against Mumbai in their previous meet of the tournament, KL Rahul went on to score his second consecutive hundred against Mumbai. Rahul started conservatively as he scored his first 17 runs in 15 balls, including three fours after four overs.
For the next five overs, he kept rotating the strike and didn’t hit a boundary before hitting a his first six of his innings against Jaydev Unadkat on the last ball of the ninth over. At that time, he was batting at 35 runs off 31 balls. After this, he increased his scoring rate with two back-to-back boundaries against Riley Meredith in the next over.
In the next over against Jasprit Bumrah, the right-hander hit a four and a single to complete his fifty in 37 balls. While he was batting well, none of the other batters made any significant contributions. Players such as Quniton de Kock (10), and Manish Pandey (22) were dismissed cheaply while their skipper was making a mark with the bat. The Bangalore-born player hit two sixes against Daniel Sams to reach 64 off 43 before Marcus Stoinis (0), and Krunal Pandya (1) lost their wickets.
However, this didn’t deter the skipper of the Lucknow side. He reach to 71 off 47 balls before in-form Deepak Hooda (10) was dismissed by Meredith. On the other hand, KL hit two fours against Bumrah and three consecutive fours against Unadkat in the next two overs to reach 94 off 57 balls with two overs remaining in the game.
He couldn’t complete his century in the very next over as Bumrah bowled with discipline. However, he hit a six against Meredith in the last over of the innings to complete his second hundred of the season. Notably, he is the second player after Virat Kohli to score two hundreds against the same team in the same season. In 2016, Kohli scored two hundreds against now-defunct Gujarat in 2016.
This is how Twitter reacted
KL Rahul with his 4th IPL ton, 3rd Vs MI and 2nd of the season. He just absolutely loves to play MI, a fantastic innings by the captain. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. pic.twitter.com/7DfXZAEIA0
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) April 24, 2022
KL Rahul – most consistent batsman in IPL in last 5 seasons. pic.twitter.com/0NTHaeAaas
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) April 24, 2022
KL Rahul at the top of the order might give you runs, but at least in IPL, he bats too conservatively for modern T20 cricket #MIvLSG
— Hemant (@hemantbuch) April 24, 2022
– Virat Kohli in 2016
– KL Rahul in 2022The only two players to score two centuries against the same team in a season 👠pic.twitter.com/wbZrq8lKbh
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) April 24, 2022
Another ð„ððˆð‚ game, another #epic #TATAIPL 💯
KL Rahul, take a bow!#LSGvMI #IPL2022 pic.twitter.com/bAbdXbKrco
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) April 24, 2022
Batting is an art, Kl Rahul is an artist 💯 ðŸ‘
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) April 24, 2022
A century for the LSG skipper.
Well played, KL Rahul ðŸ‘#OneFamily #दिलखोलके #MumbaiIndians #LSGvMI #TATAIPL
— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) April 24, 2022
KL Rahul is a different beast against Mumbai Indians.
— Umakant (@Umakant_27) April 24, 2022
KL Rahul becomes the first ever player to score 3 hundreds against a single team in T20 cricket.
100*(64) v MI at Wankhede, 2019
103*(60) v MI at Brabourne, 2022
102*(61) v MI at Wankhede, 2022 (so far)#IPL2022 #LSGvMI— Kausthub Gudipati (@kaustats) April 24, 2022
Thank you Jos Buttler for keeping KL Rahul awake.
— Silly Point (@FarziCricketer) April 24, 2022
Every other match KL Rahul transforms into tuk tuk Rahul, he is one of the best batsmen in the world. Rahul simply needs to dominate. #MIvsLSG
— Sushant Mehta (@SushantNMehta) April 24, 2022
