Rathi picked up the wickets of Abhishek and Kishan, but SRH were well in control by the time of those strikes. The match officially ended in the 19th over, but its symbolic end came in the 14th, when Kamindu hit Rathi for three clinical, back-to-back fours in his final over.

For the first half hour or so of LSG’s innings, after Pat Cummins sent them in, this appeared to be one of the flattest surfaces Ekana has yet produced. When Cummins aimed at a hard length and erred on the shorter side in the first over, the ball sat up for Marsh to slap and pull him for a four and a six. When the debutant left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey landed the ball a touch too close to Marsh’s hitting arc in the second over, there was no grip off the pitch to endanger the step-hit over long-on.

LSG rushed to 69 for no loss in their first six overs, with both openers striking the ball authoritatively. If Marsh dominated the stand, it was only because he had more of the strike. At the six-over mark, he was on 41 off 22 balls, and Markram on 26 off 14.

At the halfway point of their innings, LSG were 108 for no loss. But the last ball of the 10th over gave a clue as to how the last 10 overs would play out. This full ball from Harshal Patel didn’t quite come on to Marsh’s bat, and a low caught-and-bowled appeal ended up going in the batter’s favour because replays suggested the ball had been momentarily grounded.

SRH were certainly finding more grip with the old ball than the new one. Marsh fell in the 11th over, with Dubey getting one to turn sharply and cause him to slice a catch to short third. In the next over, Rishabh Pant,  who had promoted himself to No. 3, fell for another low score, chipping back a slower ball from Eshan Malinga, who took a superb return catch diving full-length to his left.

The challenge of the conditions was evident in the fact that Pooran began the final over without having hit a single six despite having faced 24 balls. Nitish Kumar Reddy bowled the 20th over – his second, in his first bowling innings of the season – and it turned out to be an eventful one, with Pooran and Akash Deep hitting sixes either side of three wickets including two run-outs when LSG’s batters attempted to steal byes. In all, 20 came off that over, taking LSG past 200.

Atharya Taide, coming on as Impact Sub and making his SRH debut, gave his new team early impetus with three fours in his first eight balls. Two of them were straight out of the middle, and one off an edged swipe that raced to the deep-third boundary. A similarly-edged swipe ended his innings, giving LSG debutant Will O’Rourke his first IPL wicket.

Then Kishan walked in and creamed his second ball for a gloriously-timed six over the covers. SRH were 23 for 1 in two overs, and Abhishek had only faced one ball.

All that early excitement, however, would pale against Abhishek’s onslaught. He launched a six each off Akash Deep and O’Rourke – the second an open-faced loft over cover point – and moved to 35 off 15 by the end of the powerplay. By the end of the seventh over – the most expensive seventh over in IPL history – he was batting on 59 off 19.

Abhishek only faced four balls in that over, and he hit all four over the boundary. Ravi Bishnoi is a terrific bowler against left-hand batters, using his angle across them and his wrong’un to hide the ball away from their hitting arc. But he could do nothing to stop Abhishek, who used his eye and reach to launch him for three successive sixes down the ground before pulling a short one just beyond reach of the leaping Pooran on the leg-side boundary.

SRH were 98 for 1 in seven overs, and entirely in control of their chase.

Abhishek’s attempt to go after Rathi in the eighth over cost him his wicket, as he ended up losing his shape while making too much room against a wrong’un. Rathi gave Abhishek an old-fashioned send-off, pointing him to the dressing room, before launching into his notebook celebration; all this sparked a confrontation that needed the umpires to pull Abhishek and Rathi apart.

Three more overs went by before Rathi came back into the attack, and he struck in that over too, the 12th, bowling Kishan when he missed a reverse-sweep. Kishan fell for 35 off 28, having struggled for timing after hitting that early six.

By this point, Klaasen was already up and running, having hit two fours and a six in getting to 24 off 11 balls. Kamindu joined him now, and the two put on 55 in 36 balls to shut LSG out of the game.

There were a couple of nervy moments late on, with Klaasen feathering Shardul Thakur behind for 47, and Kamindu retiring hurt after appearing to tweak his hamstring while completing a single. SRH only needed nine at that point, however; they took just three of the remaining 13 balls to finish the job.

Brief scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 206 for 4 in 18.2 overs (Atharva Taide 13, Abhishek Sharma 59, Ishan Kishan 35, Heinrich  Klaasen 47, Kamindu Mendis 32; Will O’Rourke 1-31, Digvesh Rathi 2-37, Shardul Thakur 1-39) beat Lucknow Super Giants 205 for 7 in 20 overs (Mitchell Marsh 65, Aiden Markram 61, Nicholas Pooran 45; Harsh Dubey 1-44, Harshal Patel 1-49, Eshan  Malinga 2-28, Nitish Kumar Rddy 1-28) by six wickets

[Cricinfo]