"Just because opening partner is going hard, doesn't mean you should slow down" - Sanjay Manjrekar on KL Rahul's knock

Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar feels Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain KL Rahul should have batted with a bit more urgency in the powerplay. The opener struggled for timing throughout his innings of 20(18) against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and perished trying to up the ante.

Kyle Mayers played an absolute blinder, scoring a half-century and giving LSG just the start they needed. However, once he was dismissed, Rahul felt the need to go big and slogged one across the line straight to deep mid-wicket.

Speaking on ESPNCricinfo after LSG's loss to CSK, here's what Sanjay Manjrekar had to say about KL Rahul's approach:

"When Kyle Mayers batted with a strike rate of 240, KL Rahul went into a shell. Once Mayers got out, Rahul realized he had to go for the big shots and was dismissed at a strike rate of just 111. It's very difficult to suddenly be explosive when you're already playing in one gear. You need to play every ball on its merit and just because the opening partner is going hard, doesn't mean you should slow down."

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"This is the way we want to keep playing" - KL Rahul

After the game, Rahul agreed that the batters getting out at regular intervals cost LSG the game. However, he also claimed that the team had planned to play with this ultra-aggressive approach and that they would continue to go hard.

On this, Rahul stated:

"We had a good start but couldn’t press on. Not often we’ll find 4-5 guys caught on the boundary ropes, they needed to go over and will go over the next time. We’ll take that in T20 cricket, today the game didn’t go our way but this is the way we want to keep playing."

LSG will now host the Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 7 at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow.