NEWS
Follow UsMatt Henry may not have gone wicketless on his Indian Premier League (IPL) debut for Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on April 19 (Friday), but he was pleased with the way the bowlers kept picking up wickets at regular intervals, which gave them a crack at bowling at fresh batters consistently.
"It [the pitch] was a bit on the slower side. So the way the guys adapted to the surface, we did a really good job. The key was our ability to take wickets. KP and the spinners, the guys up top, to keep taking wickets and bowling to a fresh batter made a huge difference for us," Henry said at the post-match press conference.
Henry may not have been rewarded for his good spell early on, but that was not the case for the other quicks, as Mohsin Khan and Yash Thakur walked away with a wicket apiece. There's also Mayank Yadav, a tearaway pacer, who is out due to an injury after playing a couple of games.
Henry says he is not surprised to see so much talent on offer in India.
"I think coming here and meeting a lot of young guys, we got a lot of young quicks, it's really exciting to see, no surprises to see the depth here in India. The skill set of these guys and the confidence to execute their plans under pressure is just incredible. The bowling group that I'm part of is awesome. Really enjoying it," Henry who finished with 0/26 in his three overs, said.
Henry also revealed that batting coach Lance Kluesner expressed his opinion on the lack of intent shown by the LSG batting unit, especially the top-order. It clearly sank in for KL Rahul (82) and Quinton de Kock (54), who put on 134 for the first wicket and took the game away from CSK.
"About our batting, there was an incredible knock, that opening partnership between Quinny and KL really changed the game for us. When you bat the way they did, the intent they showed, the batsmanship overall was world-class. I suppose that was the difference on the day," Henry said.
"It was always going to be a competitive total. We knew it was going to come down to partnerships. In tournaments like this, if you want to chase down totals, you need guys in the top order to make big runs. Tonight we had two of them.
"The way they went about things, I mean Chennai had momentum going into the break, but that didn't really change their focus. It showed with the intent they showed at the beginning, and the batsmanship that they showed throughout the innings laid the foundation for us to finish off the chase against what was a good bowling attack."
With this win, LSG have eight points in seven games, as many as CSK, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) but are behind on net run-rate. LSG once again take on CSK in their next game - in Chennai on April 23 (Tuesday).
