‘Everyone loves range hitting’: KL Rahul after Lucknow Super Giants’ loss to Rajasthan Royals
NEW DELHI: Captain Sanju Samson led the Rajasthan Royals with an unbeaten 33-ball 71, while Dhruv Jurel contributed 52 not out off 34 balls, as they secured a seven-wicket victory over the Lucknow Super Giants in their IPL 2024 match at Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Saturday.Put in to bat first, Lucknow Super Giants posted a respectable 196 for five against the Rajasthan Royals, thanks to skipper KL Rahul‘s 76 off 48 balls and Deepak Hooda’s 50 off 31 balls.Chasing 197, Sanju and Jurel formed an unbroken partnership of 121 runs for the fourth wicket to reach the target in 19 overs.After LSG lost the match, skipper KL Rahul rued the team’s poor start and said that his team fell short of 20 runs. “I think we left about 20 runs behind. We didn’t get an ideal start but with the partnership me and Hooda had was great. In these sorts of games, the set batter had to score close to a hundred after getting to 50-60. I think we were 150 after about 15 overs, should have capitalized on it a bit more. I think it is clear the team with more sixes ends up winning. We do try to hit our sixes but today we had to change our approach after those two early wickets. If Hooda pushed on and scored 20 more, and I got 20 more then we’d finish around 220. That would have been the difference, that’s the 20 runs we left behind,” KL said after the match. LSG, who are fourth in the points tally with 5 wins in 9 matches, will next face Mumbai Indians on Tuesday. “We’re seeing with every game how important it is to give the bowlers that extra cushion because they are under the pump. Everyone loves range hitting and hitting it all over the park, we are no different. It is part of the prep. Our big hitters are Stoin and Pooran who can hit those big shots. The other guys like us try to pick our areas and time the shots better,” he said.“(On Mishra and Bishnoi) There is a bit of chat before the game with the numbers and how opposition players match up. Mishra is an experienced player and today was a day we knew he could be useful with how slow he bowls and with the larger boundaries. Once the runs kept flowing, they put pressure on our bowlers. There were 2-3 overs when Krunal bowled really well and squeezed them but then they attacked the fast bowlers. I couldn’t get a good time to get Bishnoi, wanted to keep him for the backend when Rovman and Hetmyer came out to bat because we know he can bowl well to them,” the LSG captain said.