'I am doing something wrong as a captain': KL Rahul's confusing statement after Lucknow Super Giants' win over Rajasthan Royals

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on April 19 (Wednesday) became the franchise to defend the lowest score in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

SportsTak

• Thu • 20 Apr 2023

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on April 19 (Wednesday) became the franchise to defend the lowest score in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The Lucknow-based franchise defended its score of 154/7 by restricting Rajasthan Royals (RR) to 144/6 and secured a 10-run win at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. LSG captain KL Rahul displayed great composure, especially when the Royals were cruising to the target after Yashasvi Jaiswal and Jos Buttler combined for an 87-run partnership for the opening wicket. Rahul rotated his bowlers brilliantly and the field placements by the LSG skipper were also top-notch.

After the match, Rahul made a confusing statement during the post-match presentation ceremony when he said 'I am doing something wrong as a captain'. The reason why the LSG captain made this statement was that he was quizzed about getting hit by a throw from his own player during the game. Rahul came up with a cheeky reply to the question.

"I got hit by one of the throws from my own teammates. I am doing something wrong as a captain clearly," Rahul said.

Rahul also reflected on the slow approach by him and his opening partner Kyle Mayers, who combined for 82 runs for the opening wicket but those runs came in 64 balls. Rahul scored 39 runs off 32 balls while Mayers scored 51 runs off 42 balls. The LSG captain affirmed that after playing the first over from Trent Boult he knew that it was not a high-scoring pitch.

"At the 10-over mark, the message we sent out was that maybe 165 is a good total, so, let us try to get to 160. Did not have to set ourselves very high. They are a quality team, they have good bowlers. We fell 10 runs short maybe but we made it up with the ball in the end. There was no dew and that was fair on both teams," Rahul opined.

"We came in yesterday and we were thinking 180 is a par score. Knowing the batters they have, the mindset was to get 15 runs extra. When Boult bowled the first over, me and Kyle had a chat and we said that the ball was not coming on. We assessed it quite well but if there were a couple more partnerships in the middle, we could have gotten more," he added.