‘Everything began the place I performed that shot’ – Krunal accepts blame for LSG’s 32 for 8 collapse
Krunal Pandya accepted “full responsibility” for Lucknow Super Giants’ failure to chase down Mumbai’s 182 for 8 in the IPL 2023 Eliminator in Chennai, which ended their marketing campaign within the competitors.
It was the second successive season – the one two they’ve been a part of since turning into one among two new groups, Gujarat Titans the opposite, in 2022 – the place LSG have been knocked out within the Eliminator, having gone right down to Royal Challengers Bangalore final yr.
“We were in a really good position,” Krunal, who took over the captaincy after an damage dominated KL Rahul out, mentioned within the post-match presentation ceremony. “Everything started where I played that shot that was not on and I completely take full responsibility.”
Chasing 183, LSG misplaced openers Prerak Mankad and Kyle Mayers inside 4 overs however have been within the chase courtesy a third-wicket partnership between Krunal and Marcus Stoinis. The pair had added 45 when the primary strategic day out was referred to as with LSG at 68 for two. But on the second ball after resumption, Krunal danced down the observe to a tossed-up ball from Piyush Chawla and holed out at long-on. From 69 for two, LSG misplaced eight wickets for simply 32 to be bowled out for 101.
“At that situation, we should have played better cricket,” Krunal mentioned. “The shot I played was not on and I completely take all the blame for where we ended up.”
Akash Madhwal was the wrecker-in-chief, choosing up 5 wickets for simply 5 runs and hastening LSG’s slide. Three run-outs – all, by the way, involving Deepak Hooda – did not assist both.
“The wicket was not bad, the ball was coming nicely on the bat,” Krunal mentioned. “It remained the same in the second innings as well. We just had to bat better and take responsibility to play good cricket, but we didn’t do that after the break.”
One of the subjects of debate was LSG preferring Mayers over Quinton de Kock. Mayers was used because the Impact Player whereas de Kock was not even a part of the 5 substitutes named.
Krunal mentioned that it was a tricky name, however Mayers’ knock in Chennai against Chennai Super Kings earlier within the season sealed the deal in his favour.
“It’s always a tough decision. Quinton de Kock is a quality player, he is a world-class batter,” he mentioned. “Kyle had a better record over here and it was a tough decision but we felt we can go with Kyle at that time.”
Much earlier than all that, LSG opened their bowling with Krunal himself and Ok Gowtham, and Krunal defined that he needed to disclaim the Mumbai top-order batters the additional tempo upfront. However, the transfer did not actually work as Mumbai raced to 29 for no loss within the first three overs – two of these bowled by Krunal – and 62 for two within the powerplay.
“Their batters bat really well to the fast bowler,” he mentioned. “So I thought we can try something different and start with the spinners and then take it from there.”