The Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) registered a thrilling 1-wcket win in their Indian Premier League (IPL) face off against the Royal Challengers Bangalore at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Monday. Even though it was blistering half-centuries from Marcus Stoinis (65 off 30 balls) and Nicholas Pooran (62 off 19 balls) who set up Lucknow's win, captain KL Rahul did not have a match to remember and got out after scoring just 18 runs after consuming 20 deliveries even the team needed 213 to win.
It was largely due to the efforts of Stoinis and Pooran with the latter scoring at a strike of over 300 and the former striking at over 200 that LSG came close before a dramatic last-ball finish. No other Lucknow batter produced a significant contribution. However, after the match the Lucknow skipper did respond to question over his slow innings.
“Unbelievable. This is the Chinnaswamy, only venue where so many last-ball finishes are possible. From the position we were in, to end up winning it, is superb. We had to go hard and the ball swung early, and they got 2-3 wickets to put the pressure on us. The only reason we got two points today is for the way the lower order batted,” Rahul said at the post-match presentation.
"Not ideal for me, I want to score more runs and get the strike rate up as well. We've played on two tough Lucknow wickets, and today we lost 3 wickets so I went slower. I wanted to stay till the end and play with Nicky. Batting 5 ,6, 7 is the toughest positions to play and that's where games are won and lost. We know about the power in Marcus and Nicky, and Ayush has come along as well. He's played 2-3 knocks last year, and he's continued to perform well for us.”
With three wins in their first four matches of IPL 2023, LSG are currently leading the IPL 2023 points table.