Lucknow Super Giants captain KL Rahul admitted that they couldn’t squeeze the flow of runs in the middle overs and needed one batter to bat right through the innings against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Dr. DY Patil Sports Academy, Mumbai on Tuesday after they lost by 18 runs.
Rahul feels his team conceded 15-18 runs extra on that pitch after Faf du Plessis scored his joint highest score in the IPL. The RCB captain batted for almost the whole innings as he scored a fine knock of 96 runs from only 64 balls. Faf scored 11 fours and two sixes as he batted at the top of his game.
In fact, RCB was put under the cosh after losing four wickets for 62 runs but Shahbaz Ahmed and Faf du Plessis were able to add a crucial alliance of 70 runs for the fifth wicket. Furthermore, the left and right-hand batting combination scored their runs at an impressive run rate.
On the other hand, KL Rahul, Krunal Pandya and Marcus Stoinis all got off to starts for Lucknow Super Giants but none of them could go on to get a big score for the team. As LSG could only score 44 runs in the powerplay overs for the loss of two early wickets, they were always on the back foot and were playing catch up.
RCB was able to win the crucial stages of the game and Josh Hazlewood, Mohammed Siraj, and Shahbaz Ahmed did a fine job with the ball.
KL Rahul said in the post-match presentation, “I think we started really well, after getting 2 wickets in the first over and then give away 50 in the powerplay, we could have done better. 180 on that pitch was 15-20 extra runs we gave away, we couldn’t really squeeze in the middle and with the bat as well we needed one in the top three to go deep and the other batters to bat around him and unfortunately we couldn’t do that. We have a really good team, very happy with how we are playing, yes a couple of games we could have done better. I think we started well against Rajasthan and here as well we put them under pressure but we couldn’t sustain for much longer. Everyone has chipped in and everyone looks in good form and everyone scored for us. Important that one or two guys who have a good day they need to dig in and take the team through.”
LSG has now four wins from seven matches and they will look to get back to winning ways. KL Rahul-led will next face Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Sunday.
