‘Tumko match aur kitna deep leke janna hai’ -Fans side with Venkatesh Prasad as he criticizes KL Rahul for bottling run chase against GT in IPL 2023
KL Rahul was under intense scrutiny again when he could not take his team over the line against Gujarat Titans. Rahul started well and, at one stage, looked to coast through in the run chase. But in the middle phase of his innings, he slowed down his scoring rate and ended up with 68 off 61 balls with eight fours. This innings from Rahul was the third slowest in terms of strike rate The LSG skipper was striking at 111.48.
KL Rahul received a lot of flak for the way he batted. Venkatesh Prasad also was quick to express his displeasure about the same on Twitter.
“Bottling a run chase when 30 needed of 35 balls with 9 wickets in hand requires some baffling batting. Happened with Punjab in 2020 on few occasions losing games they should have won easily. As brilliant as Gujarat were with ball & Hardik smart with his captaincy, brainless from Lko.” Prasad wrote on Twitter.
Here is the tweet:
Bottling a run chase when 30 needed of 35 balls with 9 wickets in hand requires some baffling batting. Happened with Punjab in 2020 on few ocassions losing games they should have won easily. As brilliant as Guj were with ball & Hardik smart with his captaincy, brainless from Lko
— Venkatesh Prasad (@venkateshprasad) April 22, 2023
LSG needed 17 runs in the final 12 balls. With KL Rahul set, it should have been short work for LSG. But, unfortunately, it was not. Shami gave away just five singles and left LSG with 12 runs needed off the final over. Mohit Sharma, the comeback man in the IPL, closed it well. He made good use of the slower ball to get rid off Rahul and also Marcus Stoinis.
There were two run outs also executed in the same over. These run outs saw the back of Ayush Badoni and Deepak Hooda. GT had grabbed the match from LSG’s hands and won a low scoring thriller by 7 runs.
The GT bowlers kept putting the pressure on and Mohit and Noor Ahmed were absolutely sensational with the ball. LSG won a thriller against RR by 10 runs, a few days ago. But now Rahul’s team was on the receiving end.
There has been a lot of chatter about Rahul’s strike rate in the IPL. Many cricket pundits believe that Rahul striking at a higher rate will eventually make a difference to LSG. The Karnataka batter has been having an up and down run of form with the bat, recently. He lost his place in the Indian Test side a while back.
Let us take a look at the reactions on Twitter:
KL Rahul hum match ko aur deep mai leke jate hai … Jab match ko ek over Kai pehle khatam kar skte the wuse aur deep aur deep …deep deep karke pura team ko deep mai leii guya jha se koi nikal Kai nahi aah skta …. exactly wohi Punjab Kai sath bhi kiya tha ….
— Roshan Soreng (@roshan_soreng) April 23, 2023
Just see the psychology of this overhyped player. He isn't even saying that he played too slow. To do better in the future , one should accept his fault. But he won't because he knew that his PR team will take care of rest things. pic.twitter.com/WCIVIX0bKk
— Amit Kumar (@innovative_amit) April 22, 2023
I would say this again. Your send off to Aamir Sohail was better than the entire career of KL Rahul. pic.twitter.com/KxIPujbscR
— Cric Top Class (@crictopclass) April 22, 2023
Poor show. Lack of confidence. Nothing against pitch, it's a failure of intent.
— Himanshu Pareek (@Sports_Himanshu) April 22, 2023
Don’t mince the words, Khul ke gaaali do BKL ko Venky bhai…full support 🥳🥳🥳
— Bhupender Thakur (@MisterBeeTee) April 22, 2023
Brainless from KL*. Not a surprise though. He’s a liability for any team.
— Tushar Gupta (@Tushar15_) April 22, 2023
65 off 56 in a T20 game doesn't hold any value. A very bad knock and captaincy by KL Rahul. This game clearly told how should be the captaincy and how not.
— Shankar Mandagere (@MeShankara) April 22, 2023
Have seen most of the games lost from a winning position in KL’s captaincy in #PBKS and now in #LSG. Need some special talent to do that on consistent basis.
— Jitender Girdhar (@JGirdhar01) April 22, 2023
"Babu bhaiya Lucknow ki aad me KL ki maar raha hai ye. 2020 me Punjab ka captain bhi KL hi tha. Bahut chalaak aadmi hai Prasad Babu Bhaiya." pic.twitter.com/YRaBA2q4lH
— THE SKIN DOCTOR (@theskindoctor13) April 22, 2023
When you have learnt to take the game deep from #MSDhoni𓃵 videos, using a very slow Internet connection. #LSGvsGT #GTvsLSG #KLRahul𓃵 pic.twitter.com/ykhfSnf3f9
— Jitender Girdhar (@JGirdhar01) April 22, 2023