Gujarat Titans posted a mammoth 227 for two against Lucknow Super Giants but vice-captain Rashid Khan said his team had gone in with the mindset of defending 180-190 as the impact player rule was in force. No score is safe after that. Titans beat Super Giants by 56 runs but Rashid referred to the loss against Kolkata Knight Riders when Rinku Singh hit five sixes in the final over to give his side a win while chasing 204.
Rashid said in the press conference after the match on Sunday, “It is a great win for us but you cannot say anything in T20, in T20 sometimes the score of 230-240 also falls short. You have to be absolutely focused to give 100 per cent and that is what we discussed while coming in to bowl. “He said,” As a team, we keep it in our mind that we are defending a score of 180-190 runs. As long as we go in with this mindset, the result will be in our favour. But we are never comfortable thinking that we have scored so many runs. It is about getting the basics right and bowling in the right areas.
Rashid said, “It has become very difficult for bowlers nowadays, especially with the impact player rule. You have eight or nine batsmen in the team. If 60-65 runs are needed in the last four overs, it is achievable nowadays. Lucknow are missing their skipper Lokesh Rahul, who has been ruled out of the IPL due to a thigh injury. Lucknow fast bowler Avesh Khan admitted that Rahul’s departure has upset the team’s balance and they need to improve their bowling and batting.
He said, “We have to improve in both the departments. We have to learn from the mistakes we made today. We did well with the bat in the powerplay but not with the ball. When we needed 98 runs in five overs, we realized that the match was over for us. It is very difficult to score around 20 runs in each over.
