Lucknow Super Giants captain KL Rahul was full of praise for his all-rounder Marcus Stoinis after they registered a six-wicket win against Chennai Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on Tuesday.
While chasing 211, Stoinis played a blistering knock of 124 runs off just 63 balls to help his team get over the line. The Australian scored his maiden IPL century and scored a total of 13 fours and six maximums in his match-winning knock.
LSG had their backs against the wall in the run-chase as they needed 87 runs in the last six overs. Stoinis was able to score 17 runs in the last over against Mustafizur Rahman as LSG registered a thrilling win.
Rahul lauded Stoinis for his clever batting as he picked the right bowlers to attack at the right time.
KL Rahul said in the post-match presentation, “Very special, especially when it’s a game like that. We were way behind the game when we were batting so it was very special to pull it off. It was a fresh start, both teams started off at 0. Different conditions here. I think they started off really well and put us under pressure. 170-180 would’ve been a great total here but they batted really well. Full credit to Stoinis. It was not just power hitting, it was very clever batting. He picked his bowlers and played very well.”
On sending Stoinis at 3, Rahul said, “We felt like we needed to be braver and capitalize the powerplay and needed 1 power-hitter in the top-3.”
Rahul admitted that they need to evolve their batting approach with impact player rule and batters adopting a more aggressive strategy.
Rahul added, “I’ve realized that T20 cricket has changed in the past couple of years, 170-180 doesn’t always cut it. You need to go harder in the powerplay and the impact player rule also gives you a bit more depth.”
Rahul is also batting more aggressively in the recent past, which is the need of the hour for his team in the ongoing IPL 2024, which has seen some big totals being put on the board.
Rahul concluded, “Haven’t played much T20 cricket so happy that it’s coming off. There’s no set plan, apart from the openers, everyone else is ready to go out whenever we feel it’s right. We’re going to keep it flexible.”
Lucknow Super Giants will next take on Rajasthan Royals at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow on Saturday.
