Former Indian bowler Venkatesh Prasad who has in the past been a staunch critic of Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) skipper KL Rahul due to his poor run of games in the Test series against Australia, lashed out at Lucknow after they lost their Indian Premier League match against Gujarat Titans by 7 runs.
“Bottling a run chase when 30 needed of 35 balls with 9 wickets in hand requires some baffling batting. Happened with Punjab in 2020 on few ocassions losing games they should have won easily. As brilliant as Guj were with ball & Hardik smart with his captaincy, brainless from Lko,” he tweeted.
A dejected KL Rahul was at a loss for words after the last over debacle by LSG and said he couldn’t quite understand how that happened.
“I don’t know how it happened, but it has happened. I can’t put a finger on where it went wrong, but we lost 2 points today, this is cricket. I thought we were brilliant with the ball, 135 was 10 runs under par, the bowling was exceptional, we started well with the bat, but these things happen, we’ll have to take it on the chin. But still a long way to go, 8 points off 7 games, we were on the wrong side of the result today,” Rahul said in the post match interview.
In the match, Rahul batted in an inexplicable manner as his painstaking 68 off 61 balls resulted in a seven-run defeat.
Chasing a target of 136, LSG were cruising along at one stage before Rahul started to struggle. Mohit Sharma defended 12 runs as LSG lost four wickets in the final over, including two run-outs. They finally managed 128 for 7.
Earlier, Krunal Pandya’s younger brother and Titans skipper Hardik scored 66 off 50 balls with the help of four sixes as GT managed a below-par 135 for six after opting to bat on a slow track.
The other notable contribution was 47 off 37 balls from Wriddhiman Saha.
Left-arm spinner Krunal (2/16) and seamer Marcus Stoinis (2/20) were the most successful bowlers for LSG.
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