Lucknow Super Giants captain KL Rahul was thrilled to see his decisions pay off as he led his team to a solid eight-wicket victory against defending champions Chennai Super Kings in an IPL match on Friday.
Rahul had a successful day, making effective bowling changes, taking two catches, and executing a stumping. Rahul successfully scored match-winning innings, scoring 82 runs off 53 balls.
"Feels good at the end of the day, When you win, looks like you make all the decisions right," said Rahul, who was adjudged the Player of the Match, during the post-match presentation.
"Impossible to get all right. Depends on the kind of wicket we are playing on and the kind of batters there are. We spend time doing homework on tactics and strategy and we spoke about them not settling against one style of bowling." LSG had kept things under control before Moeen Ali (30 off 20) and MS Dhoni (28 off 9) went on a six-hitting spree to take CSK to a fighting 176 for six.
"Halfway stage, I would have been happy with 160. Felt the wicket was slow, with a bit of grip but not too much. 160-165 would have been ideal. But MSD walks in and the bowlers feel intimidated. He walks in and bowlers are under pressure, and the crowd is really loud, he has done it in the past."
Chasing 177, Rahul (82) and De Kock (54) batted with authority during their match-winning alliance of 134, the highest partnership for any wicket at the Ekana Stadium, as LSG scored 180 for 2 in 19 overs.
"Felt that if we bat well, we could chase it down. I have been trying to assess the situation and today it came off. With Chennai's spinners, they tried to put brakes on us," he said.
"We tried to get to a good start. Tried to take them down, but luckily it came off. When your partnership goes on, you can take a few more chances. Glad that it happened." Ruturaj Gaikwad, the CSK captain, said his team was 10-15 runs short with dew coming in.
"We finished off very well, couldn't have asked for more. But after the powerplay, we couldn't kick on till 14-15th over. We lost wickets regularly and were 10-15 short.
"Slightly difficult to bat but with the Impact Player rule you need an extra batter. With dew coming on later, felt 180-190 could have been good." CSK bowlers couldn't produce a breakthrough as Rahul and De Kock batted well in the powerplay and Gaikwad agreed they needed to bowl better in the first six overs.
"[Bowling in the powerplay] is one area we would like to improve, puts the opposition on the back foot if we can get wickets in the powerplay. Good to play them again soon, will come back with homework done," he said.
The two teams will again face off on April 23 at Chepauk.
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