The fans at the Ekana Stadium here had been eagerly waiting for Lucknow Super Giants skipper KL Rahul to produce an innings of substance. It finally came against Punjab Kings with Rahul notching up his first half-century of the IPL season. The knock was valuable not only for his team, but for him personally too as in the previous four innings he had been struggling to find form.
There is no doubt that Rahul’s form is very crucial for Lucknow Super Giants if they hope to go all the way to the playoffs. Thus, his Saturday knock against Punjab augurs well for the team’s fortunes in the tournament. In the process of making 74 off 56 balls, Rahul became the quickest to 4,000 runs in IPL history, reaching the feat in his 105th innings to surpass Chris Gayle’s record of 112 innings.
At the time of going to press, Punjab were 48-3 after seven overs.
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While the return of a fluent Rahul is undoubtedly good news for the Lucknow team, to keep a player of the class of Quinton de Kock on the bench is just unfathomable. He is a class player in any format, thus to keep him in the wings does not seem prudent. No doubt, Kyle Mayers is a dashing batsman, who can play a cameo, like his 29 off 23 deliveries as Rahul’s partner against Punjab, but to sacrifice de Kock for Mayers may not prove to be a good move in the long run.
The absence of de Kock was also felt more as Nicholas Pooran for once could not get going after having played well in the earlier matches. As a result, at the end of 20 overs, Lucknow Super Giants struggled to score 157-8 on a sluggish pitch, losing a spate of wickets at the death. Punjab Kings bowlers, led by stand-in skipper Sam Curran in the absence of injured Shikhar Dhawan, may well pat themselves on the backs for having restricted the strong batting line-up to a manageable total.
