'First Over From Trent Boult Made us Realise...': KL Rahul on How LSG Were Forced to Rejig Strategy

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) returned to winning ways on Wednesday night, defeating table-toppers Rajasthan Royals by 10 run in Jaipur. The Sawai Mansingh Stadium hosted an IPL game after a four-year gap which meant the track was relatively unknown to both sides. But KL Rahul & Co held their nerves till the last ball of the encounter and, ultimately came out victorious to consolidate their position on the top-half of the table.

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The pitch was far from conducive for batting, but the bowlers still had a job to do, and the ones at LSG did that with aplomb. RR openers Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal knew that playing strokes wouldn’t be easy on this track, but they managed to keep pace with the required run rate. However, LSG staged a remarkable comeback to emerge winners in the end.

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Lucknow captain KL Rahul was elated to have picked up the much-needed two points but didn’t shy from admitting that the pitch forced them to rework their plans after Trent Boult opened the game with a maiden over.

“We came in here yesterday and saw 180 would be a par score, but the first over from Boult, me and Kyle had a chat and realised this isn’t a 180 wicket. The ball was keeping a bit low, so we gave ourselves time in the powerplay. Maybe if we played a bit better, we might have got 170 as well," Rahul said in a post-match chat with the broadcasters.

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LSG waited quite a bit before bringing their impact player Amit Mishra into action. And for their first breakthrough, they had to wait till the 12th over. Despite losing a wicket, RR were still in the driver’s seat but that changed after Sanju Samson was run out following a horrible mix-up with Buttler.

Rahul further mentioned that the dismissal of his counterpart, along with Avesh striking twice in the final over, created a chance for LSG to gun down the hosts.

“I think that run-out from the impact player (Mishra), and two wickets falling back to back gives the opposition (his own team) a chance. We know with Rajasthan their strength is their top four, so we needed to have our plans in place to get them out," Rahul added.

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