IPL 2022 Lucknow season review
The Lucknow Super Giants were one of the new entrants along with the Gujarat Titans in IPL 2022, which consisted of 10 teams for the first time after 2011. LSG were one of the consistent sides of the tournament, but they ran out of fire and brimstone at the backend of the league stages.
A heavy 62-run defeat to GT in one of their final league games had an adverse effect on their net run rate, which eventually resulted in them slipping down to the third position after RR’s emphatic five-wicket win over CSK.
Despite being a new team, LSG did succeed in making the playoffs in their very first season. Without further ado, here’s a look at how things panned out for the KL Rahul-led side this year.
LSG’s hits & misses in IPL 2022
Led by India’s limited-overs vice-captain KL Rahul, LSG had a promising side that comprised of both youth and experience. However, the only thing that constantly bothered them was their brittle middle-order.
Lucknow suffered a five-wicket loss to Gujarat in their campaign opener after which it was a string of victories that followed against CSK and SRH before they went down to the Rajasthan Royals by three runs. LSG then beat MI by 18 runs and then lost to RCB by the very same margin.
Post that loss, KL Rahul & Co. regrouped nicely and went on to register four straight victories to strengthen their playoff hopes. They eventually made the final four after getting the better of KKR by two runs surviving a scare from Rinku Singh in the death overs.
Prior to that clash, they suffered big defeats against GT and RR which hampered their NRR and despite being in a position of strength, they were forced to play the Eliminator against a resurgent RCB. The pressure was there to see in the body language of the LSG players as they were involved in some shoddy fielding along with dropped catches due to which Bangalore ended up posting a mammoth 207/4. KL Rahul and his side did try their level best to put up a fight but they failed to make too much of an impact in the middle overs.
Nonetheless, with Rahul and Marcus Stoinis well set in the middle, LSG needed 35 runs off 18 balls and were cruising towards and easy win. That is when Harshal Patel and Josh Hazlewood completely applied brakes on their momentum in the death overs eventually restricting them to 193/6 from their 20 overs. With this 14-run loss the Lucknow Super Giants’ IPL 2022 campaign came to an end. Meanwhile, this was also the first time that KL Rahul had led a team to the playoffs in his captaincy career.
