IPL 2023: Sanjay Manjrekar blames LSG's Indian player for their loss against CSK

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Lucknow Super Giants suffered their first defeat of the season against Chennai Super Kings in the last match. Chasing a huge target of 218 runs, they fell short of just 12 runs in the end.

But the LSG side made a blistering start to the run chase. Kyle Mayers was in devastating form as the West Indies player took apart the CSK bowling and scored 54 runs off just 22 balls, helping the Super Giants to score 75 runs in the first five overs.

His partner KL Rahul was mostly involved in rotating the strike and played second fiddle to him. And former India player Sanjay Manjrekar thinks the LSG captain shouldn't have gone to a shell, instead should have attacked himself as well.

After Mayers was dismissed in the 6th over, Rahul failed to convert his start and departed for 20 runs off 18 balls, which was by no means ideal in a chase of 218 runs. And Manjrekar has blamed the Lucknow skipper for his slow batting.

"When Kyle Mayers batted with a strike rate of 240, KL Rahul went into a shell. Once Mayers got out, Rahul realized he had to go for the big shots and was dismissed at a strike rate of just 111," Manjrekar said while speaking to ESPNCricinfo.

"It's very difficult to suddenly be explosive when you're already playing in one gear. You need to play every ball on its merit and just because the opening partner is going hard, doesn't mean you should slow down," the former Indian player added.

The Super Giants now play Sunrisers Hyderabad in their next game at the Ekana Stadium on Friday (April 7).