Cricket

'Direct gaali do sir aap ghumao mat' - Fans react as Venkatesh Prasad rips apart KL Rahul for his slow innings against GT in IPL 2023

Venkatesh Prasad was extremely critical of KL Rahul-led Lucknow Super Giants after their loss against GT and here's how fans reacted.

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Daniel S
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KL Rahul and Venkatesh Prasad (Source - Twittter)

KL Rahul and Venkatesh Prasad (Source - Twittter)

Former India cricketer Venkatesh Prasad is quite disappointed with the way Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) lost against Gujarat Titans (GT) in the ongoing IPL 2023. After losing the toss in the match, the defending champions could score only 135 runs in the stipulated 20 overs. 

Chasing the target, LSG managed to hold on to the match for 15 overs, but in the last five overs, the Ahmedabad-based team turned the match around with the ball in such a way that the opposition was left speechless and ended up losing the match by seven runs. After this, Prasad couldn’t stop himself to express his disappointment on social media.

“Bottling a run chase when 30 needed off 35 balls with 9 wickets in hand requires some baffling batting. Happened with Punjab in 2020 on a few occasions losing games they should have won easily. As brilliant as Gujarat were with the ball & Hardik smart with his captaincy, brainless from Lko,” the Karnataka player wrote on Twitter.

Although the former India pacer did not name anyone in his tweet, his direct reference was to the slow batting of LSG captain KL Rahul. The latter scored 68 runs in 61 balls in this match. He batted till the 19th over for the team but despite this, he couldn’t help his team to win the match. This is not the first time that Rahul has faced criticism for his slow batting. Even before this, Rahul's slow strike rate had become difficult for Lucknow.

Brilliant bowling display by GT

Chasing the target in this match against the defending champions, the team Supergiants scored 106 runs losing only two wickets in 15 overs at one time. The captain himself and Nicholas Pooran were present for the team at the crease, but from here the GT bowlers displayed a remarkable comeback as LSG could score only 22 runs till the last over. During this, Lucknow lost its five wickets and was restricted to 128 runs.

Mohit Sharma, who came to bowl the last over for Gujarat, showed an amazing game. Mohit had to defend 12 runs in the last over. During this, he dismissed Rahul and Marcus Stoinis in two consecutive balls. After this Ayush Badoni and Deepak Hooda were run out. In this way, Lucknow could score four runs in their last over, while during this they lost their four wickets as well.

Here’s how fans reacted:

Indian Premier League 2023 KL rahul IPL Venkatesh Prasad Lucknow Super Giants