Should have chased it down: KL Rahul after defeat against DC

The Delhi Capitals finished their league stage of IPL 2024 with a 19-run win against Lucknow Super Giants. Batting first, DC posted 208/4 at the back of the fifties from Abishek Porel and Tristan Stubbs. In response, LSG were rocked early by Ishant Sharma’s first spell of 3/23. Nicholas Pooran and Arshad Khan scored half-centuries but Lucknow fell well short. 

The result takes a big hit on LSG’s qualification chances. Both DC and LSG are mathematically alive in the competition with miniscule chances. 

LSG’s captain, KL Rahul, reckoned inconsistent batting performances were a big reason behind their up-and-down campaign. Even in this chase, Lucknow’s top four — Rahul, Quinton de Kock, Marcus Stoinis, and Deepak Hooda — managed only 22 runs between them. 

“We did well at the back end (while bowling) and 200 was a par total, we should have chased it down,” said Rahul in the post-match interview.  

“This has been a problem right through the season - we keep losing a lot of wickets in the powerplay, we never get a solid start to get the likes of Stoinis and Pooran in, that is the big reason why we are in this position.

“ I feel the wicket remained the same throughout the 40 overs. When we got JFM (Jake Fraser-McGurk) out in the first over, we should have capitalized, but they — Hope and Porel — showed a lot of intent,” Rahul said of the defeat. 

Nicholas Pooran played a fighting knock after Lucknow were 44/4 in 4.1 overs. He scored 61 off 27 balls that put pressure on Delhi during the middle overs. 

“Definitely Pooran was giving us a hard time. We had certain plans. The total was good enough. We kept on bowling good balls,” Rishabh Pant, the DC skipper, said. 

Delhi finish the league stage with 14 points, with a win percentage of 50% in the season. “I would say the start of the season was with many hopes. Some injuries. We are still in contention even after the last game. We had a better chance of qualifying if I would have had a chance to play in the last game,” Pant, who was banned for Delhi’s last game against RCB, spoke on his team’s chances.

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