Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), on Friday, defeated Punjab Kings (PBKS) by 20 runs at MCA Stadium in Pune to move up on the points table. Lucknow successfully defended their total of 153 runs to register second triumph on the trot.
Despite the vital win, LSG skipper KL Rahul was unhappy as he criticised batters for producing a below-par performance. Rahul slammed his batters for throwing away their wickets and reckoned that it was a display of ‘stupid cricket’.
After being asked to bat first, Lucknow lost wickets at regular intervals and only managed to put 153/8 on the board. Opener Quinton de Kock (46) and middle-order batter Deepak Hooda (34) chipped in with valuable contributions while other batters failed to live up to the expectations.
No wonder Rahul was not satisfied; he admitted to being angry at the end of the first innings. The Mangaluru-born observed that they could’ve batted smartly and reached 180-190, but it didn’t happen.
“I was disappointed and fuming at the end of the first innings. We played stupid cricket with the bat. We need to get better with the bat. Half-time, when Quinny and Deepak were batting. They paced it really, really well to get to 60 in 9 overs on a tricky wicket. Had we batted smartly, we could have gotten to 180-190,” Rahul said at the post-match presentation.
The right-handed opener said that his team need to do better when it comes to reading the game and should’ve played with more caution.
“I think we just need to be smarter at reading the game. If we could not have played too many shots, we could have done better. We have been good on the field and good with the ball. Just need to keep repeating the good things,” the LSG skipper added.