The Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) were soundly defeated by the Delhi Capitals (DC) on Friday, April 12, at the Lucknow Ekana Stadium. The game-changing incident that caused LSG to lose was a crucial dropped catch by Ravi Bishnoi off Jake Fraser-McGurk, according to captain KL Rahul.
They were competitive up until the tenth over, but the lost catch turned the tide completely in favor of Delhi Capitals, Rahul stated, lamenting the wasted opportunity.
We approached the game with the same mindset: identify the strong points, determine the ideal pace for this wicket, and give it our all. After the powerplay, we acquired Warner and a few others. Up until the tenth over, we were in the game; however, Rishabh-McGurk stole it from us after a dropped catch. We battled until the very end. When they first arrived, McGurk was a complete unknown. Rahul stated, as cited by India Today, “We’ve watched a lot of videos of him, but he hit the ball really well, credit to him.”
In the match, DC easily chased down LSG’s total of 167, winning by six wickets, ending LSG’s trend of successfully defending targets of roughly 160 runs.
In his IPL debut, Fraser-McGurk made an impressive fifty runs quickly, helped along by Pant’s rapid 41 runs.
Rahul acknowledged that despite setting a lofty goal, LSG was short of it by 15 to 20 runs, but he also commended Kuldeep Yadav’s steady bowling for keeping their total in check. Additionally, he made vague allusions to possible changes to their hitting plans, specifically addressing Nicholas Pooran’s position in the lineup.
“We ought to have capitalized to reach 180, but we were only 15-20 short. While odd-ball was keeping low and Kuldeep put the brakes on our batting group, there was some assistance for seamers, Rahul remarked.
“Looking back, we may have made a different decision about Nicholas Pooran batting position. Axar didn’t have much spin, so I reasoned that Nicholas Pooran, with the shots he has, may push the opposition. In that period, we understood they had to bowl their spinners,” he continued.
Rahul also gave an update on Mayank Yadav’s condition, telling supporters that he will heal steadily but cautioning against hurrying his comeback and running the danger of becoming worse.
“Mayank is doing okay; he appears and feels fine, but we also want to be careful not to bring him back too soon. We must safeguard his body because he is young. We simply need to hold him back for a few more games until he returns, but he is dying to play,” Rahul remarked.
With this victory, DC moved up to ninth place in the standings and defeated LSG for the first time in their previous three meetings. LSG’s loss put an end to their three-game winning streak and forced them to think critically about their next games. LSG want to reorganize, bounce back stronger, and recapture their winning ways in the upcoming IPL season.