The 10-wicket loss with more than 10 overs to spare for the Lucknow Super Giants under the leadership of KL Rahul, against the Sunrisers Hyderabad has made their journey toward the playoffs quite a difficult one. They are now dropped down to the sixth position with six wins and as many as loses in 12 games.
The 98-run loss against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the penultimate game had already made life so tough for the Lucknow side, and now this defeat to Hyderabad has taken away the playoff equation out of their hands, especially with a damaged net run rate (NRR) of -0.769.
In the twinkling of an eye, Sunrisers chased down 167 in 9.4 overs, thanks to a couple of gracious knocks from Travis Head (89*) and Abhishek Sharma (75*).
‘KL Rahul hit a six…after that, the wagon didn’t move’- Aakash Chopra
It was a devasting evening for leader and opener KL Rahul and his team, the Lucknow Super Giants. The former India opener Aakash Chopra claimed that KL Rahul’s zero intent of scoring runs in the powerplay caused them for a huge total at the end.
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Speaking on his YouTube channel on the defeat of the Super Giants against the Sunrisers, Aakash Chopra observed that both KL Rahul and Krunal Pandya failed to provide the side enough power in the middle overs, especially after the wickets of both Quinton de Kock and Marcus Stoinis.
‘There couldn’t have been a slower local than this because you scored only 27 runs in the first six overs. First Quinton de Kock and then Marcus Stoinis got out.’ Aakash Chopra remarked on LSG’s innings in the first 10 overs. ‘Bhuvneshwar Kumar took two wickets this time as well. The wagon wasn’t moving from both the ends. Basically, it was a traffic jam.’
Chopra criticized Lucknow’s powerplay batting against Hyderabad
Only 16 boundaries came of the Lucknow Super Giants team, 15 of which was from Ayush Badoni and Nicholas Pooran towards the end, while only four sixes were cracked in their entire 20 overs. On the other hand, in just 9.4 overs, Sunrisers nailed the same number of boundaries along with 10 more sixes than LSG.
‘Krunal Pandya came to bat and scored 24 runs off 21 balls. KL Rahul scored 29 runs off 33 balls. He always stops himself. He hit a six in front of the wickets off Pat Cummins’ bowling.’ The former India openers expressed. ‘But after that, the wagon didn’t move at all, and then when he tried to hit once, he was caught in the deep. So, nothing happened there as well.’
The veteran also observed how slow the team was from the very first ball of their innings, and killed their own game in the first six overs.
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‘You can’t score 27 runs in six overs. It’s not something you can make the game with because firstly, you have a team with such a strong batting line-up in front of you, and secondly 27 runs in six overs is slightly unacceptable these days.’ Chopra added. ‘After that, only 57 runs were scored in the first 10 overs and three wickets were lost.’
It was quite bizarre how SRH managed 167 runs in 9.4 overs, while the Super Giants could reach to only 55/2 in the same period.
‘When we were watching the first innings, we felt the pitch was slightly slow but neither were we seeing the right thing nor were they (LSG) understanding the right thing.’ The veteran analyst concluded. ‘It was nothing to do with the pitch. It was just the batting.’
KL Rahul and Lucknow Super Giants will now take on the Delhi Capitals (DC) on May 14, at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi.
