KL Rahul backs Marcus Stoinis, says one bad game won’t change things for LSG

Marcus Stoinis‘ four and a six off the last two balls couldn’t salvage Lucknow Super Giants as the team lost to Rajasthan Royals by 3 runs in the 20th match of the 2022 Indian Premier League at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday.   

The 32-year-old Australian, who scored an unbeaten 38 off 17 balls, was praised by skipper KL Rahul, who said, bringing him in at No.8 was always the plan.

“Obviously, today we needed one good partnership which we never got going. At the end, it was excellent from Stoinis to get it close and to do it in his first game of the season will give him confidence. It was always a plan (to hold Stoinis back), we know how dangerous he can be in the last five overs,” the skipper said.

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LSG got off to an excellent start, winning three of their first four matches. The side lost its opening game narrowly to fellow first-timers Gujarat Titans, but then recorded comprehensive wins over Chennai Super Kings, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Capitals. 

“As I said, we have a lot of all-rounders, so many options and so we could shuffle the batting order a bit. We like to be a bit unpredictable a bit. These kind of totals can be a bit tricky at times, plan was to throw the bowlers off their lengths a bit but didn’t happen. But we’re a side that would continue to try being unpredictable in the coming games too. We couldn’t execute our plans at the end, the yorkers and other plans. If you miss your plans, batters these days will put you in trouble. We’ll try to work harder and handle the pressure better. One bad game won’t change things, will be a good learning for us,” he added. 

Electing to bowl, LSG produced a fine bowling effort before Shimron Hetmyer struck a fluent fifty to help RR post 165 for six. Krishnappa Gowtham (2/30) and Jason Holder (2/50) shared four wickets between them for Lucknow. Chasing the total, RR restricted LSG to 162 for eight.