Mumbai : A clinical Rajasthan Royals inched closer to securing a play-offs berth with a convincing 24-run win over Lucknow Super Giants in the Indian Premier League on Sunday. Both RR and LSG are now tied on 16 points from 13 matches and need another win to confirm their place in the next stage of the tournament. Thanks to their margin of victory, RR also toppled LSG from the second place.
Trent Boult, Man of the Match, said, ‘ Some days better than others. Nice to get wickets at the top. I have got a simple game with the ball. Good catch from Neesham. The boys did talk about some intensity as this was a crucial game for us. I am surprised that I am talking about my batting in a press conference. We can bring our right attitude and chase a ball. I think this is a tough place to bowl. I am enjoying here at a new franchise. A great opportunity.’
Sanju Samson, said, ‘ We have been taking some good decisions. It is very hard to maintain a chilled out atmosphere when things don’t go your way. Credit to the boys. You keep on losing here and there. We want to go out there and express ourselves as a batting unit. We have a quality bowling line up to defend. Last game also, Ashwin did well. Sometimes you take decisions and look bad when you lose. We can control the intensity. Neesham brought some amazing energy on to the field. There is some bonus for having some quality spinners. We can use them any time. I know a lot of Tamil. I have friends and I watch a lot of Tamil movies. Each and everyone went out there and showed some intent despite playing a batter short. You can’t really think much in this format, you just go out and express.’
KL Rahul, aaid, ‘I thought it was a gettable target. Good pitch, obviously something there with the new ball. We bowled well to restrict them to that total. We backed ourselves but we couldn’t execute. Once again the batting group hasn’t been able to perform collectively. We need to go back and work on it. Pune was a lot more harder and lot more in the pitch there than this one. When you lose wickets early it puts pressure on you. We have lost three-four games in the powerplay as a batting unit.
Make sure you find a way to stay in there when you play quality bowlers and give a good start. I don’t think we are going to do anything different. Just about going out there and executing. Obviously in pressure you want to do one thing but you end up doing something else. If we can hold our nerves and give ourselves a chance to play the new ball or a good spell. If you get through that spell you always have enough time to make up. We’ve got power in our batting line, so it is just about playing smart when the bowlers are bowling a good spell.’