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KL Rahul-led Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) suffered a nightmarish seven-run defeat at the hands of defending champions Gujarat Titans (GT) at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Saturday (April 22).
But despite LSG's defeat skipper Rahul clicked on a mega milestone in T20 cricket during match number 31 of the cash-rich league. Rahul shattered Royal Challengers Bangalore's Virat Kohli's long-standing record to become fastest Indian to score 7000 runs in T20s riding on his slow-paced 68 off 61 balls.
Rahul took just 197 innings to breach 7,000-run mark in T20s while Kohli, who earlier held the record, achieved the feat in 212 innings.
Fastest Indians to 7000 T20 runs (innings)
197 - Rahul
212 - Virat Kohli
246 - Shikhar Dhawan
251 - Suresh Raina
258 - Rohit Sharma
271 - Robin Uthappa
Overall, Rahul is the third fastest batter in the world to step on the massive milestone and now is only behind Chris Gayle and Babar Azam in the elite list.
Fastest to 7000 runs in T20s (innings)
187 - Babar Azam
192 - Chris Gayle
197 - KL Rahul
Notably, Rahul, who became the 41st batter to complete 7000 runs in T20s , boast of the second best strike rate (42.42) while achieving this feat and is only behind Babar (44.14).
Talking about the match, LSG made a mess of an easy run chase and crumbled under pressure before going down to the defending champions by seven runs. Riding on skipper Hardik Pandya's sedate fifty GT posted a lowly total of 135/6 on the board. In reply, Rahul's sluggish knock of 68 off 61 sank LSG's boat at the end and couldn't even score 31 off last 36 balls. It all boiled down to 12 off the final over which the experienced Mohit Sharma comprehensively defended as he only conceded four runs to clinch the issue for GT. Rahul who completed his fifty off 38 balls and then scored the next 21 runs off 18 when LSG needed him the most.
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