Lucknow Super Giants crushed Sunrisers Hyderabad’s hopes of qualification to the playoffs as they beat them by seven wickets on Saturday, May 13 at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad.
Losing Skipper, Aiden Markram said:
We spoke about adapting, we knew we could target that one over from spin, it was right up to my match-up and thankfully it came off well (on the 31-run over from Abhishek), I did enjoy my batting. It’s important to target that 6th bowler, it’s a batter’s game, no risk, no reward, you have to work on the match-ups. I’ve played enough international cricket to know how to deal with situations, I expected the bowlers to bowl yorkers and slower balls and was ready for it. Even in T20I cricket, I’d like to bat longer.
Winning Skipper, Krunal Pandya, said:
With the way they were going I thought 200, but we pulled it back nicely towards the end especiallyn by Yash and Avesh. At this level anything is possible, we had the belief and with players like Stoinis and Pooran, we had to believe. We knew we had to go and there was nothing special, luckily it paid off for us and Abhishek’s over changed the momentum. He’s (Prerak Mankad) coming for his first season and to come out and bat like that shows a lot of character, really happy for him to coming out here and scoring those runs. Even he will believe he belongs here.
Prerak Mankad (64 off 45), Player of the Match, said:
Most important game for us, my score does not matter for me, whichever team I play I want to contribute. I was trying to hit the spinners and couldn’t connect, I knew Mayank would try to get me out and I have played against him in domestic cricket, so took my chance. Thanks to the management for giving me this opportunity. I haven’t batted a lot at number 3 but have batted in the top four. I back my ability and strength, it worked out in the end. Whatever happens at the other end should not effect me, and because of Stoinis and Pooran we won this game.
