"Cannot afford to lose my line and length" - Rashid Khan on his game-plan after a win over LSG

On Tuesday, fans were gifted with a low-scoring thrill when two top sides from the current season met at the MCA Stadium in Pune. It was a race to top the group league and the Gujarat Titans had a fantastic game. The anchor of the win was opener Shubman Gill, who had a match-winning knock of an unbeaten 63 off 49 balls. However, they still ended with a below-par score of 144/4 in their 20 overs.

But it was the superstar leg-spinner Rashid Khan, who spun the web with the ball in his hand and restricted the LSG batters from scoring runs and took four crucial wickets to bowl them out for just 82 runs. As a result, GT won the match by 62 runs and became the first team to qualify for the playoffs with 18 points.

During the post-match presentation, Rashid spoke about his game plan during the match. He pointed out the previous two games that GT lost. He said that he was missing the line and length in two games, but with his action and speed, he couldn't afford to do that. The leg-spinner said that he focused on hitting the right area and that the wicket was also assisting the bowler with bounce and turn. 

The GT pacer gave them a really good start. However, Rashid also spoke on the team's game plan for the upcoming games. He said that whenever you are defending 140-145 runs, you need your pacer to give a good start and that's how they started. Speaking on the team's performance, he added that the team will keep the same process going ahead whether they win or lose. Rashid concluded, "We have to get better day by day and have to keep doing good things. Now the focus should be on playing good cricket and enjoying ourselves."

Sai Kishore and Yash Dayal also bowled really well and took two wickets each. GT will now face the defending champion, Chennai Super Kings, on Sunday, May 15 at the Wankhede Stadium. They would like to keep the winning momentum going as the tournament is heading towards the knockout stage.