Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], April 8 (ANI): Following his side’s win over defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) skipper Rishabh Pant gave an update on an injury scare he faced during the match, saying that his back is fine.
LSG continued to improve its fortunes with a second-successive win in the tournament, downing KKR by four runs in a thriller. During the match, in the 12th over of KKR’s innings, Pant was seen down on the pitch, receiving some treatment from the physios on his back. After that, Pant continued to keep wickets.
During the post-match presentation, Pant said about his back, “It is fine now.”
Talking about his side’s performance, he said, “I think when we batted we didn’t realise it will get this close but after the powerplay we did. After the first timeout we went to the bowlers and told them to stick to the plans, not try too many things and do the basics right. That was very conscious (to slow down the game), when the game is going down at that pace you need to do something, it works sometimes and sometimes it does not work.”
Coming to the match, LSG was put to bat first by KKR, who won the toss and opted to field. After a 99-run stand between Aiden Markram (47 in 28 balls, with four boundaries and two sixes) and Mitchell Marsh and later a 71-run stand between Pooran and Marsh (81 in 48 balls, with six fours and five sixes), Pooran went berserk in the final few overs, compiling 87* in 36 balls, taking his side to 238/3 in 20 overs.
Harshit Rana proved expensive with figures 2/51. Spencer Johnson was taken to the cleaners, giving away 46 runs in three overs. Russell took 2/32 in his two overs. The spin duo of Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy did not work as they went wicketless with 0/38 in three overs and 0/31 in four overs respectively.
During the run-chase of 239 runs, KKR got off to a fine start and 54-run stand between Sunil Narine (30 in 13 balls, with four boundaries and two sixes) and skipper Rahane and a 71-run stand between Rahane and Venkatesh Iyer (45 in 28 balls, with six fours and a six) kept KKR afloat. However, they sunk to 185/7 within no time and despite best efforts of Rinku Singh (38* in 15 balls, with six fours and two sixes) and Harshit Rana (10* in nine balls, with two fours), KKR fell short by four runs and they could make 234/7 in 20 overs.
Akash Deep (2/55) and Shardul Thakur (2/52) were top wicket-takers for LSG.
Pooran was given the ‘Player of the Match’ honour.
LSG has climbed to fourth spot with three wins and two losses, giving them six points. KKR has sunk to sixth with two wins, three losses and four points to their name. (ANI)
