OPINION
Follow Us10 games into the season, the Lucknow Super Giants are doing their level best to serve as the living proof for the fact that numbers don’t always tell the full story.
It would be easy to look at LSG’s individual player statistics for the season and come to the conclusion that they’ve been carried by the runs scored by their skipper.
So far this season, KL Rahul has amassed a staggering 157 runs more than any other Lucknow batter. Rahul has struck two hundreds and, remarkably, he is the only LSG batter to boast an average over 30.
Not just the volume of runs, by the way. Despite Rahul being an anchor, no other player in the squad has been able to top his strike rate of 145.01.
But even though the statistics suggest that Rahul has done all the heavy lifting, that has not been the case.
For the truth is that the LSG skipper, all season, has merely been executing ‘his’ role to perfection. That Lucknow currently find themselves second on the points table is because, much like Gujarat Titans, game after game they’ve had individuals rise up to the occasion and deliver for the side.
It is precisely what led to their win over the Delhi Capitals on Sunday at the Wankhede.
LSG began the tournament as a side that many fancied, and so far they’ve lived up to all expectations by winning 7 of their first 10 games. What has really caught the eye about the franchise, however, is the sheer amount of individuals that have stood up at different points in the season.
Cast your mind all the way back to LSG’s very first game of the season. They were inserted into bat by Gujarat on a lively Wankhede wicket, and in no time they found themselves 29-4, having lost all their big guns. It was quite the inauspicious start, and in that moment you feared that their IPL campaign could end up getting off to the ugliest of starts.
There, they ended up finding the unlikeliest of saviors in the form of Deepak Hooda and debutant Ayush Badoni. The pair put on 87 for the fifth wicket, and it was a partnership that gave the side a fighting chance.
The Badoni-Hooda stand wasn’t enough to take LSG over the line in that game, but it ended up foreshadowing something significant. The partnership proved to be the first of many instances in the season where Lucknow would end up having individuals rise up to the occasion unexpectedly.
Rahul’s side registered their first win in the IPL against Chennai at the Brabourne, and in that, they had Evin Lewis take the side home against all odds, batting at No.4. The same game, however, also saw Andrew Tye bowl a fine 20th over — 2 wickets and 11 runs — and keep CSK’s momentum in check.
Two games later, it would be the turn of Krishnappa Gowtham. Prior to the clash against Delhi Capitals, Gowtham hadn’t featured in an IPL match in 18 months. Yet playing his first game since 2020, the off-spinner ended up finishing with figures of 4-1-23-1. It was Gowtham’s wicket of Prithvi Shaw that proved to be the single biggest turning point in the encounter.
Across the next few matches, Lucknow would have both Dushmantha Chameera and Krunal Pandya make match-winning contributions.
On Sunday, it was the turn of young Mohsin Khan.
Mohsin had already made his mark in the competition through his showings against both Mumbai and Punjab, but against the Capitals at the Wankhede, he did not just finish with pretty figures; he made the world take notice of him through his performance.
Taking the new ball, the 23-year-old first bowled a tight first over — conceding just 1 against Prithvi Shaw — before getting the huge wicket of Warner in his second. By the end of his second over, Mohsin had figures of 2-0-5-1, having bowled a remarkable 8 dots in 12 balls.
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It was, however, his third over that turned the game on its head.
At 120/4 in the 13th over, with Rishabh Pant and Rovman Powell in the midst of a dangerous partnership, Delhi were right in the contest. Two more big overs would have made them overwhelming favorites, particularly with both Axar Patel and Shardul Thakur yet to come.
It was then that skipper Rahul decided to throw the ball to Mohsin Khan, of all bowlers, immediately on the back of an 18-run Gowtham over. And the youngster not just pulled things back but ended up delivering a killer blow by rattling the timber of the well-set Pant. It was a thump from which the Capitals never recovered.
For all the pre-game talk about the absence of Avesh Khan, DC ended up being run over by a name they least expected.
And so Mohsin’s impeccable showing with the ball extended the pattern of LSG having an uncanny knack to get individuals to chip in with game-turning contributions at crucial junctures.
Mohsin’s spell, though, was not the only non-Rahul contribution that played a key role in LSG’s win on Sunday. 90 minutes before the left-armer ran through the Capitals, Deepak Hooda played an invaluable 52 that put the DC bowlers under serious pressure.
His 95-run partnership with Rahul pretty much served as the perfect example of this LSG side thriving because of players executing their respective roles to perfection.
Hooda walked into bat in the fifth over, with LSG already flying high at 42/1, but by finding the boundary ropes on a consistent basis, the right-hander ensured that he did not let the team’s momentum stall at any point. Hooda’s role was to tonk the DC bowlers while Rahul anchored, and he did that to perfection.
But the overall numbers won’t tell you the vital contributions Hooda, or anyone else in this Lucknow squad barring Rahul, has made. With the bat, Hooda, de Kock, Badoni, Lewis and Krunal all average in the 20s, but every single batter has made a telling contribution that has impacted the side positively.
Likewise, Ravi Bishnoi, despite averaging close to 40 and conceding at over 8, has played a key hand in multiple victories. The leggie, in fact, was Lucknow’s unsung hero at the Wankhede on Sunday, finishing with figures of 1/28 on an evening where the other spinners combinedly went for 112 in the 11 overs they bowled.
With 14 points in the kitty and still 4 games left to play, Lucknow have now all but sealed a playoff spot. With the amount of match-winners they have in their squad, however, you suspect that Rahul would be disappointed if his side does not go all the way.
