Three reasons why Lucknow lost against Gujarat

Gujarat and Lucknow have made their debut in the Indian T20 League 2022 in a match against each other at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. Gujarat looked thoroughly professional throughout the match except for a few hiccups during the chase. Lucknow will have some issues to address after this match to come back stronger. Let us look at three main mistakes that they committed and lost in the match.

1. Brittle Top Order: Lucknow had some big names in their top half of the batting order. Names like KL Rahul, De Kock, and Evin Lewis are a threat to even the best bowling lineups on any given day. But today Lucknow were 4 down for 29 overs in the fifth over of their innings. Though the middle order and the lower middle order brought them back into the match, they never got over the initial shock. Due to a weak start, they fell 20-25 runs short of what could have been a winning total.

2.Weak Death Bowling: Lucknow was well in the match during the middle overs of the Gujarat innings. Using spinner for too long and lack of proper death over planning took the pressure off the Gujarat batters. The Lucknow team will look at the match and try and address the death bowling issue in the next match.

3.Poor Planning: KL Rahul probably overused his spinners. When the Gujarat batters were struggling for runs and not getting anything out of the middle Rahul could have used his prime bowlers and looked to finish it quick. But he decided to persist with his slower bowling options and that just gifted the match away to the opponents. The match completely changed colors when 39 runs were scored in the 16th and 17th overs. Gujarat did not let go of the momentum they gained from their and won the match with two balls to spare with 5 wickets in hand.