LSG has now been officially eliminated from the playoff race. SRH chased down 206 target with 1.4 overs left. Rishabh Pant‘s form and the poor bowling unit have been a great concern for them this season. Let’s look at what led to the defeat of LSG.
Poor bowling strategies by SRH
LSG’s fast bowling unit has been one of the weakest attacks this season. None of their fast bowlers has a threatening pace to trouble batters. The ball had some swing for the initial 2-3 overs, but Rishabh Pant didn’t give the ball to Shardul Thakur.
William O’Rourke impressed with his pace and bounce in his debut game, but didn’t get enough support from the other end. Rishabh Pant could have tried Shardul Thakur with at least one over with the new ball when the ball is swinging.
SRH bowler used the slower ones and variations well and controlled the run flow of LSG after an amazing opening partnership. LSG scored just 61 runs from 12 to 19 overs. If not for the 20-run last over from Nitish Kumar Reddy, their score would have been around 195 as the LSG set a target of 206 runs, which gave them a psychological advantage.
LSG bowlers didn’t try for variations, instead went with the yorker plan and failed miserably. Their yorkers landed as full toss and slot deliveries. Except Digvesh Rathi who took 2 wickets and gave away 37 runs in his 4 over spell, none of their bowlers looked effective. Ravi Bishnoi was smashed for 4 consecutive sixes in the 8th over. That over changed the momentum towards SRH, and LSG could never come back into the game after that.
205 was still a good score at this venue as no one chased that before, but LSG bowlers couldn’t create any pressure on SRH batters..
Poor middle order
LSG openers are one of the best in this tournament. Both Mitchell Marsh and Aiden Markram have been scoring runs consistently. But their middle order couldn’t capitalize the start of the openers. Even in today’s match, LSG openers made a partnership of 115 runs in 10.3 overs.
LSG are aiming at a target of 220 from that position, but fell short of 15 runs in the end, which eventually cost them the game. Captain Rishabh Pant is running a bad phase and Nicholas Pooran hasn’t been performing consistently for them after the initail matches.
Pooran smashed 31 sixes in first 6 games and just 3 sixes in the next 6 games. It shows the dip in his form and that affected the team. Whenever Pooran failed to score runs, LSG struggled. Ayush Badoni and Abdul Samad played some good knocks but they can’t completely rely on two youngsters to finish games for them everytime.
Senior players like Rishabh Pant and David Miller should step up for them. As they are eliminated, now they can try different players for the remaining two matches to find the perfect playing X1 for the next season.
Also Read:Â LSG vs SRH: SRH Stun LSG With Six-Wicket Win, End Playoff Hopes