Lucknow Super Giants captain Rishabh Pant was delighted after his team registered a four-run win against defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Tuesday. LSG posted a huge score of 238 runs on the board after blistering knocks from the top three batters – Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh and Nicholas Pooran.

Aiden Markram scored 47 runs off 28 balls whereas Mitchell Marsh smashed 81 runs off 48 balls. The LSG openers added 99 runs for the opening alliance whereas Nicholas Pooran continued his purple patch, scoring a blistering knock of 87 runs off just 36 as he scored his runs at a strike rate of more than 240.

Pant thought the game wouldn’t go so close after they posted a huge score on the board but admitted it was going to be a close affair when KKR smashed 90 runs in the Powerplay.

The wicket-keeper captain revealed he and think tank told the bowlers to stick to the plans and not try too many things.

Pant said in the post-match presentation, “I think when we batted we didn’t realise it will get this close but after the powerplay we did. After the first time-out we went to the bowlers and told them to stick to the plans, not try too many things and do the basics right. That was very conscious (to slow down the game), when the game is going down at that pace you need to do something, it works sometimes and sometimes it does not work.”

On promoting Abdul Samad to number four position, the LSG captain concluded, “We wanted to keep the right-left combination going. The back is fine now.”

Lucknow Super Giants will next take on Gujarat Titans at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow on Saturday.