On a pitch where Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain KL Rahul managed to score 29 runs from 32 balls, Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma made it look like they are playing a video game on easy mode. As Head and Abhishek smashed LSG bowlers all around the work, Rahul did not have a plan B to fall back on and did not even use all the bowlers available. As SRH chased down the target of 166 with 10.2 overs to spare and 10 wickets in hand, Rahul was left clueless.
“I am lost for words. We have watched that kind of batting on tv. But this is unreal batting. Everything seemed to find the middle of the bat. Kudos to their skills. They have worked hard on their six hitting skills. They didn't give us a chance to know what the pitch played in the second innings. Was hard to stop them as they teed off from ball one. Once you are on the losing side, there are questions marks on the decisions taken,” Rahul told the broadcasters after the demoralising loss at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad.
Rahul also acknowledged that the score of 165/4 was a below-par score. He felt that they were way too short to put up a fight against SRH. However, he lauded Ayush Badoni and Nicholas Pooran for helping them post a respectable total despite a very slow start.
“We were 40-50 runs short. When we lost wickets in the powerplay, we couldn't get any momentum. Ayush and Nicky batted well to get us to 166. But even if we would have got 240, they could have chased it as well,” the wicketkeeper-batter added.
Record-breaking run chase leads to LSG slipping on points table
The score of 167 is the highest total in the first 10 overs in the Indian Premier League (IPL) history. The previous record also belongs to SRH for 158/4 against Delhi Capitals (DC) earlier this season. This was LSG's sixth defeat of the season. Their net run rate (NRR) took a massive dent after a 10-wicket loss. With two games left, they are placed sixth on the points table.
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