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Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) secured a commanding 98-run victory over Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at Ekana Stadium on Sunday. LSG’s decision to field first proved costly as Sunil Narine showcased his power-hitting prowess, smashing 81 runs off 39 balls, including seven sixes and six fours. The strong finish provided by Shreyas Iyer (23 off 15) and Ramandeep Singh (25 off 6) propelled KKR to become the first team to breach the 200-run mark in Lucknow, posting a formidable total of 235 for 6.
KKR showcased their prowess not only with the bat but also with the ball. Varun Chakaravarthy‘s impressive figures of 3 wickets for 30 runs in 3 overs and Harshit Rana‘s effective spell of 3 wickets for 24 runs in 3.1 overs played a key role in restricting LSG to just 137 runs in 16.1 overs. Notably, none of the LSG batters managed to hit a fifty in the match.
KL Rahul has his say on LSG’s crushing defeat
During the post-match presentation, LSG captain KL Rahul expressed disappointment with his team’s overall performance, attributing it to their defeat. Reflecting on the run chase, Rahul pointed out that batters tend to go for big hits when chasing big targets, resulting in losing wickets.
“It was a lot of runs to be scored in the second innings. When you are chasing a big total, you are trying to go too hard and you end up losing wickets. Just a poor performance overall. We didn’t (hit our lengths on a consistent basis), just been a poor performance overall with bat, ball and in the field,” Rahul said in the post-match presentation.
Rahul praises KKR batters
Rahul commended the KKR batters, specifically Narine and Phil Salt, for KKR’s rapid start, which saw them accumulate 61 runs in just 4.2 overs.
“Sunil Narine and Phil Salt, during the powerplay, we’ve observed their batting approach and how they exert pressure on the opposition. Our young bowlers found it challenging to cope with that level of pressure, and Narine played some excellent shots,” the wicketkeeper-batter stated.
Rahul further remarked that in the IPL, teams face tough challenges against skilled players, which serves as a test of character. He admitted that their team fell short of expectations in the match. He also mentioned that pitch has offered decent bounce to the bowlers without posing extraordinary difficulties.
“That’s how IPL is, you come up against really good players and that’s when your character is tested. We weren’t up to the mark. The wicket was really good, felt like a pretty true wicket, there was a bit of bounce if you bowled hard lengths and back of a lengths, but nothing out of the ordinary and it didn’t seem like a pitch that was really bad. 235 was probably 20 or 30 runs above par and our batting performance was really poor. When you’re chasing such a big score, you’re under pressure, it’s always hard. We prepare well in advance and talk about the opposition batters, we know our conditions here and we do spend a little bit of time talking to the bowlers and talking to the batters trying to see what kind of plans we need to come up with. Once we come here, it’s about execution and we went wrong in that part,” Rahul added.
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LSG skipper opens up on team’s playoffs qualification
Rahul noted that the Sunday match concluded their home fixtures for this IPL season, with the team now gearing up for three consecutive away games. Regarding their playoffs qualification scenario, the 32-year-old player stressed that it’s clear that they need to clinch victories in all their remaining games to end the league stage among the top 4.
“This is our last home game for us, so we are on the road for the next three games. It’s pretty clear for us, if you want to get to the top four, you got to win all the games. That will give us a little bit of freedom to go out there and be a little bit more fearless, little bit brave to take on the game,” he concluded.
