Lucknow Super Giants took their third win in the Indian Premier League 2022 T20 last Monday at Dr. DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai. This time the team won against Sunrisers Hyderabad by 12 runs. SRH was unable to catch up with the score when they took the pitch in the second innings.
"What's pleasing is that we've found a way to stay in the game and give ourselves a good chance of winning. We did that again today," Rahul said.
SRH won the toss and decided to bowl in the first innings. LSG then took the pitch and was able to score 169 runs off 20 overs.
"Not ideal to lose three wickets early, but we need to give ourselves a little time since we bat deep and we have power at the death. That's something we need to learn as a batting group - how to play risk-free cricket while looking for fours,” the LSG captain said.
LSG captain KL Rahul is the top scorer of the match with 68 runs off 50 balls. Deepak Hooda follows him at 51 runs of 33 balls. The third highest scorer is Ayush Badoni with a score of 19 runs off 12 balls.
"I've been playing with Hooda for the last 3-4 seasons, he doesn't come out of the nets. Don't really need to do so many nets when you're batting so well, but he never comes out of the nets,” Rahul said on Hooda.
"But with the ball, we've been brilliant in all three games. We don't chat so much in the middle. As opening batsmen, you give yourselves a couple of balls and if the wicket is good then both openers have to go," the captain concluded.
"If we lost wickets early, we need to quickly assess the situation and see what the target should be. Quinton and Lewis wanted to put pressure on Washington, but it didn't come off."
"He had to wait for his chance, he's using that, and now is becoming someone you can rely on, in the middle order."
Hyderabad's performance
It seems batting in the second innings is not a great strategy for SRH since they were unable to outrun LSG. They only score 157 runs off 20 overs. This is the team’s second loss in the IPL 2022.
Three top scorers for SRH are Rahul Tripathi with 44 runs off 30 balls, Nicholas Pooran with 34 runs off 24 balls, and Washington Sundar with 18 runs off 14 balls.
"Much better performance from the last outing. Our powerplay bowling was good with three wickets," said Williamson, whose bowlers had LSG reeling at 27 for three after opting to field first,” said SRH skipper Kane Williamson.
He added, "If only we could break the next partnership but credit to Deepak Hooda and KL Rahul. That was the difference to take them to 170. There were glimpses where we put ourselves in positions to get over the line with the bat but wasn't good enough.
“A few ones and a few twos and the chase would've taken a different shape. The game is a game of small margins but we don't want to get too far ahead and try to look back on those good bits," he ended.
