"KL could have taken a little more chances" - Ravi Shastri questioned KL Rahul's defensive approach to 208 chase against RCB

Lucknow Super Giants lost the Eliminator match at the hands of RCB by 14 runs. After winning the toss, KL Rahul put Bangalore to bat first. But RCB came hard and registered a massive score of 207/4 in their 20 overs, courtesy of a splendid century from Rajat Patidar. He scored an unbeaten 112 off just 54 balls.

Chasing a big target, LSG lost the last match centurion, Quinton De Kock, in the first over, but they recovered pretty well to score 62 runs in the first six overs. Skipper also scored 26 off 17 within the power-play, but after that he only scored a single boundary in the next seven overs that increased the asking rate.

As a result, LSG fell short of the target by 14 runs as the skipper lost his wicket in the 19th over after scoring 78 runs off 59 balls. Lucknow only managed 49 runs during the play between 7 and 13 overs. That put the pressure on the other batters.

Although Deepak Hooda played some shots to keep the team in the chase, he too fell in trying to up the ante. He scored 45 off 26 balls. However, once he got out, Rahul also played some big shots, but it was too late.

 The former Indian head coach, Ravi Shastri, looked surprised at the way the LSG skipper anchored the innings and left too much in the end. During a discussion on Star Sports after the match, Shastri pointed out that LSG should have tried to score some quick runs between overs 9 and 13. He also said that they should have targeted the bowler during the Hooda-Rahul partnership.

He added that when Hooda and Rahul were batting, the skipper should have tried to score some quick runs because Hooda was doing it at the other end. Shastri said that Rahul could have targeted some bowlers because Harshal was coming to bowl in the late half of the innings. He said, "If they had got the required rate down at the stage, that would have made RCB a little nervous."

However, the LSG skipper defended the approach of its batters, saying that the RCB bowler bowled a really good line. He also praised Harshal Patel in particular during the middle and at the end of the overs. The RCB pacers bowled really well and kept the scoring rate under control. He ended with a figure of 1/25 and took the game away from LSG.