Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) stand-in captain Krunal Pandya took “full responsibility” for his team’s 81-run loss to Mumbai Indians (MI) in Chennai on May 24 in the IPL 2023 Eliminator which ended their journey in the tournament.
Chasing 183, LSG lost both openers, Prerak Mankad and Kyle Mayers, in the first four overs before Krunal and Marcus Stoinis combined for 46 runs to keep the innings going. Krunal went out at long-on, attempting to hit a six off Piyush Chawla, just as Lucknow appeared to be cruising in the chase.
LSG's batting ended on 101 after eight wickets fell for 32 runs. Their innings also contained three run-outs, two of which came from Stoinis and Deepak Hooda.
“We were in a really good position. Everything started where I played that shot that was not on and I completely take full responsibility. At that situation, we should have played better cricket. he shot I played was not on and I completely take all the blame for where we ended up,” Krunal said after the match.
Krunal added that LSG together as a team also failed to take responsibility during the chase.
“The wicket was not bad, the ball was coming nicely on the bat. 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,” Krunal added.
Krunal said that the West Indian’s earlier performance at the Chepauk went in his favour, when asked about picking Kyle Mayers ahead of Quinton de Kock.
He said: “It’s always a tough decision. Quinton de Kock is a quality player, he is a world-class batter. Kyle had a better record over here and it was a tough decision but we felt we can go with Kyle at that time.”
(IPL input)
