Pant underlines the ‘toss effect’ in Lucknow

Pant underlines the 'toss effect' in Lucknow

Rishabh Pant, the Lucknow Super Giants skipper, claimed that toss plays an important part in Lucknow's home games, but didn't want to use that as an excuse following his team's loss against Delhi Capitals on Tuesday.

Axar Patel & Co. restricted the hosts to 159 for 6 after putting them in to bat. Aiden Markram and Mitchell Marsh provided LSG with a strong start through an 87-run stand for the opening wicket in 10 overs. However, they failed to capitalise from thereon, losing wickets at regular intervals and were unable to get the boundaries flowing with ease on a surface where the ball was stopping a bit.

Delhi Capitals, led by KL Rahul's unbeaten half-century, chased down the target with eight wickets in hand and 2.1 overs to spare.

"We knew we were 20 runs short," admitted Pant. "In Lucknow, toss plays a big part. Whoever is bowling first, they get a lot of help from the wicket. We just had to stay back, we just couldn't get it away.

"It always happens in Lucknow, in the second innings, the wicket gets better and batter to bat on, that's how the game goes and you can't be complaining. Yes, toss is playing a huge part here, but as a team, we are not looking for excuses"

Vijay Dahiya, the assistant coach of Lucknow Super Giants, credited the opposition, Delhi Capitals, for assessing the conditions well and taking advantage of that. Dahiya doesn't want to blame the surface.

"We had more than 80 runs in the 8th and 9th over. Thereafter we lost some momentum. So rather than talking about the pitch, we will try to address the other things. We should have seized that momentum.

"Let's give credit where it's due. I think Delhi Capitals bowlers assessed that condition very well. If you look at both the innings, there were a few overs where the ball stopped slightly. At that time, they used cutters and made a very good comeback.

Dahiya also defended the decision to promote David Miller to the fifth position in batting, in the 14th over, suggesting that it was an effort to regain the lost momentum in the contest following three quick dismissals and a curb in the scoring rate.

"I think in T20 format, there is only one plan, and that is to have a lot of plans. Nothing is decided in this game. You try to understand how the game is going and how you will try to ride it. We were a little behind the game. We tried to make a comeback. So that was an effort to promote Miller, who plays with an attacking style, to see if that could change anything. If we managed to get 10-15 runs from a few overs then, the game could have been different."