"Can't Really Understand...": IPL Winning Coach On Injured KL Rahul Batting Late vs RCB

Lucknow Super Giants had a forgettable outing on Monday as they faced an 18-run defeat against Royal Challengers Bangalore in their IPL 2023 match. Apart from losing the match, LSG faced a huge blow as their skipper KL Rahul sustained an injury. Rahul pulled his right thigh muscle in the second over of RCB innings while trying to stop a boundary. This resulted in him, leaving the ground in the first innings and finally returning to bat at No 11 during the 19th over of LSG's chase. However, LSG had already lost their grip over the match by that time and Rahul could not make any difference as RCB defended a low total 126.

After the match ended in RCB's favour, former Sunrisers Hyderabad coach Tom Moody did not mince his words and criticised the LSG skipper for not coming to bat earlier in the chase.

“I can't really understand. If he was going to go in, he was supposed to go in during the middle of the game and see if he can hopefully hit you know three or four boundaries. Get a quick 12, 20, whatever it might be and hopefully cause no further damage to his injury," Moody said after the match on ESPNcricinfo.

Aided by KL Rahul's injury early in the match, Royal Challengers Bangalore did just enough to eke out an 18-run win over Lucknow Super Giants in a low-scoring IPL match.

RCB never had momentum in their innings despite the opening pair of skipper Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli sharing a 62-run partnership.

The spin duo of Ravi Bishnoi (2/21) and veteran Amit Mishra (2/21) shone bright with the ball in the middle overs to keep a check on RCB's scoring rate.

Later, it turned out to be a nightmare for LSG as they got bundled out for 108 after Josh Hazlewood and Karn Sharma scalped two wickets each.

(With PTI Inputs)