NEW DELHI: Lucknow Super Giants bowlers first leaked 235 in a historic first at the Ekana Stadium and batters then had a disappointing run, collapsing under the scoreboard pressure as
KL Rahul
and Co. succumbed to a heavy 98-run defeat at the hands of Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday.
Smashing the LSG bowlers left, right and centre, Sunil Narine hit a sparkling 81 which was followed by a collective effort by the bowlers as KKR restricted the hosts to 137 all out and moved to the top of the table.
Skipper Rahul after the embarrassing defeat blamed an overall poor performance for the horror show in their final home game of the season.
"Lot of runs. Poor performance overall. It was a big total. Like I said, It's a poor performance with both bat and ball. Narine in powerplay puts a lot of pressure. Our bowlers couldn't handle the pressure," Rahul said at the post-match presentation.
While the Ekana surface produced its first ever 200-plus T20 score, Rahul did not blame the pitch and conditions and said it stayed true throughout the game.
"Wicket is very good. There is a bit of bounce if you bowl hard length. It wasn't a bad pitch. 235 was 20-30 runs were above par. Our batting was poor," Rahul added.
With their fifth defeat of the season in 11 games, Lucknow were pushed to the fifth spot on the points table but Rahul said that team will look to bounce back quickly and will look to make it three out of three going ahead and finish inside top four.
"Once we go back to dressing room, we move on from this game and see where we went wrong. Last home game, we are on the road for the next few games, we need to be little bit more fearless," Rahul said.
The win, on the other hand, brought KKR closer to the playoffs.
Shreyas Iyer and Co. now have 8 wins in 11 matches.
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