When LSG captain KL Rahul was asked about the low-scoring match, he cited the pitch as the reason. However, former India head coach Ravi Shastri disagrees with the LSG captain’s reasoning
In a low-scoring match on Wednesday, Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) defeated Rajasthan Royals (RR) with a score of 10-run in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 match. Both teams were able to score more than 80 runs in their respective first-wicket partnerships but could still finish only around the 150-run mark.
When LSG captain KL Rahul was asked about the low-scoring match, he cited the pitch as the reason. However, former India head coach Ravi Shastri disagrees with the LSG captain’s reasoning.
KL Rahul has received a lot of criticism of late, especially about his strike rate in the shortest format of the game. Against Lucknow, he scored a 32-ball 39. After the conclusion of the match, Shastri said that Rahul needs to increase his strike rate.
“Absolutely (needs to get the strike up). All that talked about 160, I don’t buy it. When you have two chances, if you convert that 39 to 60 or 70, 160 becomes 175. You need someone in the top 3 to carry on and play that long inning,”
Ravi Shastri told Star Sports.
“If the Rajasthan Royals team had done that. They would have won this game. Plenty to learn from this game for both sides on how to approach and take chances at the right time. It’s still early days in the tournament. Rajasthan is No. 1 and Lucknow is No. 2 and they will learn a lot from this,”
he added.
At the end of the match, Rahul said that he thought 160 would be a par score on the Jaipur wicket that was keeping low and wasn’t easy to bat on.
“In the 10 over mark, the message me and Kyle sent out was 160 would be a good total on this track, they have some good bowlers as well who exploited the conditions. We fell 10 short but made up with the ball. And there was no dew so made it fair for both teams. 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 realized this isn’t a 180 wicket. The ball was kept a bit low, so we gave ourselves time in the power play. Maybe if we played a bit better, we might have got 170 as well,’
he had said.
Even though Lucknow is second in the IPL 2023 points table, there remains plenty of scope for improvement.