Image Credit- BCCI
KL Rahul said that Lucknow Super Giants’ failure to maximise their total cost them their home game against Rajasthan Royals.
“We left about 20 runs behind,” Rahul told the host broadcaster after the game. “We didn’t get off to an ideal start but the partnership that me and Deepak Hooda had [got us on track].”
After being sent to bat, LSG was down to 11 for 2, but because to Rahul and Hooda’s 115-run partnership off 62 balls for the third wicket, they were able to rally and keep up a strong run rate. In the three overs before Hooda fell for a 31-ball fifty, the pair hammered 45. Rahul continued, but he was unable to put the finishing touches in. He was out in the eighteenth over, and LSG could only produce twenty-five runs in the next three overs to end up at 196 for 5.
“Once we were set, that’s the time [in which] if Hooda could have pushed on, got 20 more runs and if I could have pushed on and gotten 20 more runs, we could’ve probably finished at 220; and we’re seeing with more games being played that it’s important for the batters to make sure we give that extra cushion for the bowlers.
“They [RR] bowled well in the last couple of overs, we were in a good position at 150 for 3 by the end of the 15th over. So, I think we should have capitalised a bit more and got about 20-25 runs more.”
RR started the chase strongly, but LSG rallied and quickly removed the highly effective three of Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Riyan Parag, leaving them 78 for 3 in the ninth. Playing his first game of the season, legspinner Amit Mishra was called on as the Impact Player and got Parag with his fourth ball. Mishra did not bowl again after his second over, the eleventh, went for 12.
Legspinner Ravi Bishnoi, the other primary spin option for LSG and a player in all nine of their games this season, was not allowed to bowl until the sixteenth over. The equation then said that 53 needed off 30 with seven wickets remaining. Rahul gave an explanation for why Mishra was promoted to the XI while Bishnoi was kept out.
“Mishra is an experienced player and we’ve been thinking about using him from the first game,” Rahul said. “Today was the day where we felt like he could be useful against their batters in the middle [order] with how slow he bowls and the slightly larger boundary. That was the idea of using him and we were hoping to use Bishnoi in the latter half.
“But once the runs kept flowing – even when they lost wickets, they just made sure that they put pressure on our bowlers… There was a period of two or three overs where Krunal bowled really well and we really squeezed them hard.