Watch: Lucknow Super Giants owner Sanjiv Goenka publicly expressed his displeasure with skipper KL Rahul following the mauling against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Wednesday (May 8).
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LSG were rocked by SRH openers Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head, who chased down 166 in just 56 balls at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Hyderabad. The hosts became the quickest team to chase down 150-plus in the history of T20s, with both openers scoring their respective fifties to lead the onslaught.
The problems began for Lucknow at the very start as their top order failed to get going. They were reduced to 21-2 and added just six more runs at the end of the powerplay, with Rahul batting on 19 in 24 at the point. It was their slowest powerplay score ever in the tournament. Rahul ended up making 29 in 33 balls at a strike rate of 87.88 before he departed in the 10th over with the scorecard reading 57. It was only courtesy of a 99-run stand between Nicholas Pooran and Ayush Badoni that LSG crossed the 160-run mark.
Following the defeat, Goenka was seen having an animated chat with Rahul where he was supposedly showing his frustration to the wicketkeeper, who in turn, had little to say. The encounter did not go down well on social media, with users attacking Goenka for taking on Rahul outside the dressing room.
I am neither an IPL fan nor #KLRahul ‘s! But the open dressing down by the promoter Sanjiv Goenka of Lucknow Super Giants to KL Rahul is in bad taste!
It’s like the king abusing the slave!#LSGvSRH #IPLCricket2024 pic.twitter.com/r3xYFHw9hj
— Anu Sehgal 🇮🇳 (@anusehgal) May 8, 2024
This is the second time in as many times that an owner of an IPL team has received flak for his behaviour during a game. On Tuesday (May 7), Delhi Capitals owner Parth Jindal was seen celebrating the controversial dismissal of Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson by chanting ‘Out’ along with wild arm movements. Jindal later defended his action.
Watch Sanjiv Goenka’s animated interaction with KL Rahul here:
This is just pathetic from @LucknowIPL owner
Never saw SRH management with players on the field or even closer to dressing room irrespective of so many bad seasons and still face lot of wrath for getting involved. Just look at this @klrahul leave this shit next year #SRHvsLSG pic.twitter.com/6NlAvHMCjJ— SRI (@srikant5333) May 8, 2024