Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) skipper KL Rahul has been fined Rs 24 lakhs for maintaining the slow-over rate in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 match against Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday (April 25).
Meanwhile, the rest of the members of the LSG Playing XI were also fined Rs 6 lakhs or 25 percent of their match fee, whichever is lower.
In the contest against MI, Rahul slammed his second hundred of the ongoing IPL season and steered hisside Lucknow Super Giants to a comfortable 36-run win on Sunday. Notably, it was MI’ eighth straight loss in the current season and the Rohit Sharma-led side are still to register a single win.
Significantly, Rahul’s 103 not out saw Lucknow scoring 168/6 in the allotted 20 overs before they restricting Mumbai to 132/8.
The victory saw Lucknow joining Sunrisers Hyderabad, Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore on 10 points, two behind league-leading Gujarat Titans.
Speaking after the match, an ealted Rahul said: “Will have to make up for all the over rates and fines I’m getting (with his Player of the Match awards). Trying to play according to the situation, see what’s expected out of me. Enjoying batting, enjoying the responsibility. Fingers crossed I can keep doing the right things. First thought was just get bat on ball, feel good, get that single. When you’ve played in a venue that’s been good to me previously, but not so much in the last two games, just wanted to get that single first. Lucky that I could score as much as I did.”
“I try and assess the pitch and conditions and see what’s best I could do for the team. With this team, we do bat deep. Holder is batting at eight. With the depth, you can play a bit more freely. That’s probably the only reason (for his higher strike rate). Teams that can defend well, or bowl well in the powerplay and finish off well in the death overs are teams that have won the tournament. We were very clear going into the auctions – I’m big on having allrounders in the team. Having them in the team, makes my life easier with the options,” he signed off.