Lucknow Super Giants were handed an embarrassing 10-wicket defeat by the Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Wednesday. LSG skipper KL Rahul has been despairingly muted after the tough loss against the Orange Army. The defeat left LSG’s team owner, Sanjeev Goenka, devastated, who lashed out at Rahul for the team’s average outing.
However, Goenka’s behaviour towards Rahul caught him under the glare of criticism as the fans slammed him for having schooled him publicly. On the other hand, LSG’s social media handle has been dormant after the team’s debacle against the Sunrisers, posting only one heartfelt message of a promised comeback.
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Amidst the social media silence, Super Giants’ right-hand bowler Naveen-Ul-Haq came out in support of KL Rahul by posting a heartwarming post featuring his picture with the latter on Instagram. Naveen resorted to only putting a heart emoji in the caption and kept the comments on the post limited. The timing of the post does suggest that Naveen's post was a gesture of support towards KL Rahul following the controversy.
After succumbing to the defeat, KL Rahul said that he was at a loss for words. He also lauded the batting skills of SRH openers Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, who made a mockery of the run chase.
{{/usCountry}}After succumbing to the defeat, KL Rahul said that he was at a loss for words. He also lauded the batting skills of SRH openers Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, who made a mockery of the run chase.
{{/usCountry}}“I am at a loss for words. We have watched that kind of batting on TV. But this is unreal batting. Everything seemed to find the middle of the bat. Kudos to their skills. They have worked hard on their six-hitting skills. They didn’t give us a chance to know what the pitch played in the second innings. It was hard to stop them as they teed off from ball one,” Rahul said.
Rahul also believed the team was 40-50 runs short after losing early wickets in the powerplay. He also backed Ayush Badoni and Nicholas Pooran for holding the team’s sport in tough situation.
“Once you are on the losing side, there are question marks on the decisions taken. We were 40-50 runs short. When we lost wickets in the powerplay, we couldn’t get any momentum. Ayush (Badoni) and Nicky (Nicholas Pooran) batted well to get us to 166. But even if we would have got 240, they could have chased it as well,” he added.
Where do LSG stand in IPL 2024?
LSG descended to no.6 in the points table with 12 points in 12 matches. The team must win its next two encounters to keep the playoff hopes firm in the league.