Lucknow skipper Rahul blames batters, terms loss to Gujarat as a learning experience

Pune : Lucknow Super Giants skipper K.L Rahul said Tuesday’s humiliating 62-run defeat to Gujarat Titans in which his team got all out of 82 was a good learning experience for his batters, whose poor shot-selection meant the team slumped to a big defeat in a low-scoring encounter.

Rahul had termed the pitch tricky at the toss itself and was unsure of how it will play. And his team proved how difficult life on that pitch at the MCA Stadium was by slumping to 82 all out.

The pitch was difficult as the ball was gripping and slowing off the surface but there were no demons in it. There were rewards for batters who played cautiously and stayed at the wicket. Gujarat Titans opener Shubman Gill proved that with his fighting unbeaten 63 that helped his team reach 144/4 in 20 overs.

In reply, leg-spinner Rashid Khan claimed 4/24 to lead a clinical bowling performance as Gujarat Titans won by 62 runs.

Rahul blamed his batters for the defeat and said they were guilty of poor shot selection. He said it was a learning experience for his team.

“We should have batted a lot better. Some poor shot selections and a runout didn’t help. Some good learning from this for us hopefully. A loss for this is not what a team wants but sometimes you need a little reminder to keep turning up every game and keep doing our best,” he said at the post-match presentation on Tuesday.

Rahul said the trick here was for him and fellow-opener Quinton de Kock to take the team through the powerplay overs with something like 30-40 runs on the board.

“With these low totals, you want to make use of the Powerplay. So for me and Quinton, it was about getting the team off to a good start, not necessarily getting off to a 60-run Powerplay, but at least get to 35 or 45 without losing too many wickets would have been ideal and set us up. Because we knew the pitch was going to grip a bit and scoring runs after the Powerplay and hitting boundaries might be difficult so we took a few chances that didn’t come off,” he added.

Rahul, who complimented his bowlers for their superb performance in restricting Gujarat to a score below 150, said they were aware that batting against the spinners would be difficult in the second innings.

“In the middle, we knew that their spinners will be difficult to score off, but having said that we have to find ways to score runs against good opposition on tricky pitches. That’s something that we need to learn and figure out,” he said.

He said the task for his team now was to regroup quickly and come back with good energy and intensity in the remaining games in IPL 2022.

“Obviously we’re not going to sit back and overanalyze a game like this. What we want is energy and intensity in the field and that was quite good while we were fielding. Batting, you get one chance and you can make a mistake. So you don’t want to overanalyze a game like this. You want to learn from it and see how we can do better if we’re put in a situation like this again.”

Lucknow are currently in the second spot in the points table with 16 points from 12 games. A win in their next two matches will seal their place in the playoffs.