The Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) pulled off a thrilling last-ball finish to chase a 213 goal in their 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL) game against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Monday. It was Marcus Stoinis and then Nicholas Pooran were instrumental in their team’s victory for half a century from each of them. However, doubts were cast over captain KL Rahul whose performance, hitting just 18 runs from 20 balls, deeply disappointed his fans.
Without Stoinis (65 from 30 balls) and Pooran (62 runs from 19 balls), the Super Giant would have ended up on the losing side. No batsman, including captain Rahul, could contribute significantly. After the game, however, Rahul explained why he chose to go slow. “Incredible. It’s Chinnaswamy, the only place where so many final ball games are possible. It’s fantastic to win in the position we were in. We had to hit hard and turn the ball around quickly and they took 2 wickets to put pressure on us. Took 3 wickets. Today we got two points for how he knocked down the order,” admitted Rahul.
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Commenting on his strike rate and contribution, the opener said, “It’s not ideal for me, I want to get more runs and also increase the strike rate. We played two difficult wickets in Lucknow and today we lost three wickets, so I slowed down. I wanted to stay to the end and play with Nicky. Hitting 5, 6, and 7 is the hardest position and that’s where games are won and lost. We, Marcus and Know, Nicky and Ayush’s strongholds have also arrived. He played 2-3 innings last year and continues to do well for us. With this victory, Lucknow climbed to the top of the IPL 2023 table with 3 wins from their first four games. On the other hand, there is the Bengaluru team with only one win from three games and a negative net run rate of -0 in 7th place in the points table.
