Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain KL Rahul is struggling to get going in the Indian Premier League (IPL 2023). His struggle is two-sided. Put aside his failures to score big consistently, even when Rahul does bat well, he does it with a low strike rate and this affects LSG’s quest to post big scores . Against Punjab Kings, the LSG skipper, it seemed, wanted to rectify the issue in his game and got Kagiso Rabada to score the maximum over long-off. However, on the next ball, Rabada stopped his innings in the middle. Rahul scored just 12 runs in 9 balls. However, LSG scored 257 for 5 in 20 overs. Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni and Kyle Mayers went on a boundary-hitting spree as LSG registered the second-highest score in IPL history.
Rahul’s big scores are inversely proportional to LSG’s big scores
A statistic of KL Rahul’s poor strike rate is going viral on the internet stating that whenever KL does well with the bat, his team puts up low scores on the board. The statistics show that whenever Rahul has scored more than 20 runs, LSG has done poorly on the scoreboard. LSG’s best score when Rahul scored more than 20 runs is 154 for 7 in 20 overs. But every time Rahul scored less than 20, LSG scored around 200.
LSG totals and KL Rahul scores this season:
257 vs PBKS – Rahul 12 (9)
213 vs RCB – Rahul 18 (20)
205 vs CSK – Rahul 20 (18)
193 vs DC – Rahul 8 (12)159 vs PBKS – Rahul 74 (56)
154 vs RR – Rahul 39 (32)
128 vs GT – Rahul 68 (61)
127 vs SRH – Rahul 35 (31)#LSGvsPBKS pic.twitter.com/qHSkgroJVt– Bharat Seervi (@SeerviBharath) April 28, 2023
LSG totals this season:
When KL Rahul scored more than 20 runs
127/5 (16 overs), 159/8, 154/7, 128/7
When KL Rahul scored 20 or less
193/6, 205/7, 213/9, 257/5
The above stats on Rahul mirror the management of LSG as well as Rahul. Earlier, Rahul has said that he finds the strike rate a bit high in T20 cricket. Since taking over as captain in the IPL, first with Punja Kings and now with LSG, Rahul has preferred to play the anchor role for the teams. However, their ploy doesn’t necessarily always work.
Super Giants on the points table
The big win over PBKS has taken LSG to the second spot on the points table. The fact that they registered a 56-run win over Punjab means that their Net Run Rate (NRR) has also increased drastically. All the top four teams in the standings – Rajasthan Royals, LSG, Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings – have 10 points each and what sets them apart is their NRR.