Lucknow Super Giants skipper KL Rahul was chuffed to get most of his decisions right as he guided his team to a convincing eight-wicket victory over defending champions Chennai Super Kings in the IPL game in Lucknow on Friday.
Rahul had a good day in office. He was spot-on with his bowling changes, took two catches and affected a stumping before returning to smash a match-winning 53-ball 82.
"Feels good at the end of the day. When you win, looks like you make all the decisions right," said Rahul, who was adjudged the Player of the Match, during the post-match presentation.
“Impossible to get all right. Depends on the kind of wicket we are playing on and the kind of batters there are. We spend time doing homework on tactics and strategy and we spoke about them not settling against one style of bowling."
LSG kept things under control before Moeen Ali (30 off 20) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (28 off 9) went on a six-hitting spree to take CSK to a fighting 176 for 6.
"Halfway stage, I would have been happy with 160. Felt the wicket was slow, a bit of grip but not too much. 160-165 would have been ideal.
"But MSD walks in and the bowlers feel intimidated. He walks in and bowlers were under pressure, the crowd was really loud; he has done it in the past."
Chasing 177, Rahul (82) and De Kock (54) batted with authority during their match-winning alliance of 134, the highest partnership for any wicket at the Ekana stadium, as LSG cruised home with 180 for 2 in 19 overs.
"Felt that if we bat well we could chase it down. I have been trying to assess the situation and today it came off. With Chennai's spinners, they tried to put brakes on us.
"We tried to get to a good start. Tried to take them down; luckily it came off. When your partnership goes on, you can take a few more chances. Glad that it happened."
Ruturaj Gaikwad, the CSK captain, said his team was 10-15 runs short with dew coming in.
"We finished off very well; couldn't have asked for more. But after powerplay, we couldn't kick on till 14-15th over. We lost wickets regularly and were 10-15 short.
"Slightly difficult to bat, but with Impact Player rule you need an extra batter. With dew coming on later, felt 180-190 could have been good."
The CSK bowlers couldn't produce a breakthrough as Rahul and De Kock batted well in the Powerplay.
Gaikwad agreed they needed to bowl better in the first six overs.
"[Bowling in the powerplay] is one area we would like to improve; puts opposition on the backfoot if we can get wickets in the powerplay. Good to play them again soon; will come back with homework done," he added.
The two teams face off again on April 23 at Chepauk.
