Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain KL Rahul spoke about the loss his team faced in the match against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. He said that although they are not panicking, they need to find out where they are lacking.
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) registered their second consecutive Indian Premier League (IPL) defeat as Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) defeated them by 8 wickets at their home Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday (April 15).
It was a poor outing for LSG with the bat as they finished with a total of just 161 runs. Captain KL Rahul (39) played a brave hand with the bat but did not get the desired support from the top and middle order in the game at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
Nicholas Pooran (45) and Ayush Badoni (29) played vital hands with the bat as Lucknow Super Giants finished with a total of 161 runs on the board. For KKR, Mitchell Starc was the pick of the bowlers with his figures of 3/28.
With the ball, LSG struggled to get going. Even though they picked two wickets, they failed to capitalize on it. Phil Salt (89*) and captain Shreyas Iyer (39*) shone for Kolkata Knight Riders as they chased down the target with 8 wickets in hand to hand LSG their second consecutive defeat of the season.
KL Rahul admitted that they were beaten by the opposition and it will be a difficult loss for them to digest. He spoke about the conditions and added that they lost wickets at regular intervals, which was a turning point for them. In statements to the stations, he explained:
“One of those days, it was a real hammer blow. Games like these are difficult to digest and we have seen it in IPL and every team goes through it. We will try to solve what went wrong and come back better. The ball started to nibble. There were many more turns “In the second innings, the shots we played in the first innings were not executed well and we kept losing wickets in bunches and we could have got a lot more runs and that is where we failed and lost the game.”
KL Rahul also spoke about Shamar Joseph, who gave away 47 runs with the ball on his debut. The LSG skipper admitted that the pacer needs to work on his line length. He added:
“He (Shamar Joseph) is bowling quite fast, Shamar was very excited and wanted to bowl fast, he spread it out a bit but that happens when you play your first game in the IPL. He needs to work on consistency in line and length, obviously he did that the ball would swing and move on the power play.
No panic: KL Rahul at LSG faces two consecutive defeats
KL Rahul further added that they are not panicking about facing two consecutive defeats. He said his team needs to see where they went wrong and must surpass the 160-run mark with the bat. He elaborated:
“Not to panic (over consecutive losses), we have to find out where we went wrong and in the last two games we have not been able to get over 160 and that is something we want to see and be better at that.”
The Lucknow Super Giants will next be seen in action when they take on Chennai Super Kings on Friday (April 19).
