We didn't want to take risks when Bravo was bowling: Badoni

Ayush Badoni is slowly carving a niche for himself in the Indian Premier League after scoring two consecutive knocks that defined the game. While the knock didn't help his side win their opening encounter, it paid off really well against Chennai Super Kings as Lucknow Super Giants beat the four-time champions to get off the mark on the points table. Ayush Badoni scored a nine-ball 19, in the end, to ensure that the side have a player to bank on for the future games.

Speaking about the tactic last night, Badoni suggested that they wanted to wait for the last two overs and didn't want to take any risk against Dwayne Bravo. "I know my role and I was only told to play my natural game. They knew that if Evin and I click with our shots then we can win. So there was no specific message, we just had to play our shots and we executed it well," Badoni said at the virtual post-match press conference.

Veteran all-rounder Bravo, who became the league's highest wicket-taker with 171 scalps when he dismissed the dangerous Deepak Hooda in the 18th over of the LSG innings, had bowled his quota of four overs by the time Lucknow needed 34 from the last 12 balls. With the spinners finding it extremely difficult to grip the wet ball owing to heavy dew, the ball was handed to Shivam Dube in the 19th over, which proved to be a match-turning one as the duo of Lewis and Badoni smashed his medium-pace bowling for 25 runs to bring the equation down to nine runs from the last over.

"We didn't want to take risks when Bravo was bowling, but we had to go for our shots in the last two overs, we had to go all out as we needed around 28 runs (34)."

The ploy worked for LSG as they completed the chase with three balls to spare. "I guess 210 was a good score and I think we chased it pretty well," Badoni said.

Asked about the best learning from the IPL so far, he said: "It is to be yourself and not lose your individuality while around the big players... just be natural."

The 22-year-old entered the game against CSK after scoring an impressive 54 off 41 balls in LSG's opener against Gujarat Titans.