Mumbai, May 18: Lucknow Super Giants beat Mumbai Indians by 18 runs at Wankhede Stadium on Friday. Chasing the target of 215 runs, MI were restricted to 196 for 6. Earlier, Nicholas Pooran scored 75 off 29 balls as LSG posted a total of 214 for 6 in 20 overs. LSG needed to beat MI with a margin of over 300 to stay alive in playoff race but they posted only 214. KL Rahul also played a crucial knock of 55 off 41 balls. In defence of the total, Ravi Bishnoi’s 2 for 37 played a pivotal role for LSG.KL Rahul, LSG captain, said, Very disappointing. At the beginning of the season, I really felt we had a strong team and had most bases covered. Couple of injuries – happens to every team. We didn’t play well enough collectively. Today was a really good performance. This is the kind of game we wanted to play more. Unfortunately we didn’t do that. Really happy for them. Franchise has invested a lot of time and energy with them (Indian pacers in LSG). It’s not just two months in the year. We sent Mayank and Yudhvir to South Africa to train with Morne Morkel. Hard work for them has paid off, but franchise and the team has worked a lot with them. I’m not sure. There’s not much T20 cricket coming up now. It’s been a season where I’ve learnt a lot about my own batting and what I need to do to get back in the team. Maybe middle-order, maybe not. We would’ve ideally wanted him (Pooran) to bat higher, but with how the team’s lined up, we want our senior international players bat in positions where they can absorb pressure. Didn’t want our two overseas batters to bat close together. I’m on my father-in-law’s team now. We’ll both be cheering for Sharma ji ka beta in the World Cup.
Hardik Pandya, MI Captain, said, Quite difficult. Did not play good quality cricket, eventually costed us the whole season. It’s a professional world. Have to always come out and put our best foot forward. But yes, as a group we could not play quality cricket or smart cricket. Too early to point out what went wrong. The whole season kind of went wrong. We can pass this game as another one (that went wrong).
