"I think we have a team that is never out of the contest" - KL Rahul on his team's self-belief after narrow loss to RR in IPL 2022 

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain KL Rahul stated that the fight shown by his IPL team in their narrow three-run loss to the Rajasthan Royals (RR) would give them extra confidence moving forward. The new franchise ended their streak of three consecutive victories with the loss at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday evening.

LSG clawed their way back into the game despite being 14-3 at one stage of the game. A composed innings by Quinton de Kock, followed by a stunning cameo from debutant Marcus Stoinis towards the end, nearly gave the side another win.

KL Rahul claimed that he had full faith in his side to make a game out of the chase despite being three-down in the powerplay. He said during the post-match presentation:

"Look, I think we have a team that is never out of the contest. We bat really deep and have options with the ball. Even when we are 20/3, we always believed that we could win this game. Obviously today, we needed one good partnership in the middle overs but it never got going. Brilliant from Stoinis in the end to keep us in the game. Games like this will just give us confidence and remind us that we are a good team."

LSG introduced several changes to their batting order. Krishnappa Gowtham and Jason Holder were promoted to No.3 and No.4 respectively while all-rounder Stoinis was pushed down to No.8.

Explaining the thinking behind the revamped batting order, Rahul said:

"We know how dangerous Stoinis is at the end and we wanted him after the 15th over. We will try to be a little unpredictable at times and shuffle the batting order."

The LSG captain added:

"These targets can be tricky and we thought Gowtham can put the bowlers under the pump. We will be a team that will be unpredictable and make some moves that will be aggressive."

The ploy to send the Australian at the crunch end of the chase almost worked. He responded in style despite being new to the crease and scored a very impressive 38 off just 17 deliveries.

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"I didn't see it, that's all I can say" - KL Rahul on his dismissal to Trent Boult

A pivotal moment in the fixture came on the very first delivery of the second innings. Trent Boult, coming around the wicket, managed to swing the ball a long way back into the right-hander and breached KL Rahul's defence to hit the stumps. This gave the LSG skipper his second duck of the tournament.

Crediting Boult for the delivery that got him out, KL Rahul stated:

"I didn't see it, that's all I can say. It was a good ball. Just gotta give it to him."

Another vital factor in the match was LSG's death bowling. The dropped catch by Krunal Pandya, of Shimron Hetmyer, proved costly as the Caribbean batsman led the charge in the last phase of the innings. The Royals amassed 73 runs off the last five overs.

Opining that LSG's death bowling has stood out in the tournament so far, KL Rahul asserted:

"We've done really well in the four games. Our death bowling is the one thing that has stood out. Today, we could not execute the yorkers and our plans. Guys like Shimron can do the damage in the end if you miss your yorkers. But we will go back and work harder to execute our plans."

According to the IPL 2022 schedule, KL Rahul's LSG will next take on the Mumbai Indians (MI) on April 16 (Saturday) at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.