After the humiliating 81-run loss, Krunal claimed that it was a stratigical move as Kyle Mayers has a good record at the particular venue.
Chennai: The big surprise at the toss on Wednesday ahead of Eliminator at Chepauk was when Krunal Pandya did not make any mention of why Quinton de Kock did not feature in the XI versus Mumbai Indians. While speculations were rife that the South African star may have picked up a niggle, the LSG skipper finally revealed the reason why the former was not picked for the game. After the humiliating 81-run loss, Krunal claimed that it was a stratigical move as Kyle Mayers has a good record at the particular venue.
“Quinton de Kock is a quality batter, but Mayers has a better record here, so we went ahead (in the playing XI) with him,” Krunal said at the post-match presentation.
Mayers did get a start but could not go big as he perished for 18 off 13 balls.
“We were in a good position at one stage, but everything started (going wrong) when I played that shot, we should have played better cricket. That shot (his wicket) was not on, I completely take the blame for that. The ball was coming nicely on to the bat, we just had to bat better. We didn’t play good cricket after that strategic break,” Krunal took full responsibility for the loss.
MI scored 182 for 8 in 20 overs and it seemed 15 short given explosive batting firepower of Lucknow but Madhwal’s incredible figures of 3.3-0-5-5 and some terrific ground fielding led by skipper Rohit Sharma saw Gautam Gambhir mentored side crumble for a paltry 101 in 16.3 overs.
