Three reasons why Lucknow failed to win Indian T20 League 2022

The Indian T20 League 2022 ended with league debutants Gujarat lifting the title. They beat Rajasthan by seven wickets in the final. However, another team that made their league debut was Lucknow.

However, they could not go beyond the Eliminator of the tournament. The KL Rahul-led team had a decent season, but could not get their hands on the trophy. Here are the reasons why Lucknow failed to win the Indian T20 League 2022.

Poor performances by their all-rounders

The Lucknow team had several top-class all-rounders. They had the likes of Marcus Stoinis, Jason Holder, Deepak Hooda, Krunal Pandya, and Krishnappa Gowtham in their setup. However, most of them had little to no impact on the season. The all-rounders made up for the entire team's middle order, but could not provide strong results, putting the top order under pressure.

Except for Deepak Hooda, nobody had a significant contribution to the team. He scored 451 runs at an average of 32.2 in 15 matches. He was mostly used as a batter but lived up to his role. This poor run from their all-rounders cost them the season.

A poor end to the league stage

Lucknow was at the top of the points table after playing 11 games. However, poor results in the last three games got them down to the third place. They were brutally defeated by Gujarat and Rajasthan, and won very narrowly against Kolkata. This bad finish may have harmed the team's confidence heading into the crucial playoff game against Bangalore.

They had a chance to end up in the top two, which would have given them another shot after losing their first game in the playoffs. However, since they finished third, they had to play the eliminator and did not get a chance to redeem themselves.

Slow approach while chasing in the eliminator

In the eliminator game, the men in turquoise were set a massive target of 208 to chase down. However, they could never get their innings at par with the required run rate. Except for Deepak Hooda, all of the batters played a sluggish game. The captain scored 79 runs in the chase, but took 58 balls to get there. He only started to score at the death in the innings.

Had the approach been a little more attacking, the team could have been on the winning end of the match. Bangalore eventually won by 14 runs to go to the second qualifier.