Need more intensity on the field: KL Rahul

PUNE: Lucknow Super Giants skipper KL Rahul has said that the crushing 62-run defeat at the hands of Gujarat Titans will not affect the team's "energy" and "intensity" in the field when they take on the next opponents to secure a last-four berth in IPL 2022.

Riding on the win against LSG, the Hardik Pandya-led Gujarat Titans secured a playoffs berth on Tuesday nigh.

The LSG are in a great position to secure a last-four berth, as they are on 16 points. But they still have to win one of their remaining two games to ensure there are no surprises later on, given that two teams -- Rajasthan Royals and RCB -- have 14 points each, while Delhi Capitals and Sunrisers Hyderabad -- on 10 points each -- can also stake claim to last-four berths provided they win their three remaining games.

The LSG skipper conceded that this was not the time to "overanalyse" but to keep the energy and intensity in the field intact.

"Obviously we're not going to sit back and overanalyse a game like this. What we want is energy and intensity in the field and that was quite good while we were fielding. Batting, you get one chance and you can make a mistake. So you don't want to overanalyse a game like this. You want to learn from it and see how we can do better if we're put in a situation like this again," said Rahul.

The skipper said that he knew the wicket would play tricky, adding that the batters should have applied themselves better than the 82 runs they managed in the chase of 144.

"We all knew it looked like a tricky wicket. That's how it's played here for the last two or three games that we played here. We knew it was a tricky and challenging pitch. But we bowled really well I think. Restricting a team under 150 is really commendable on any pitch and the bowlers did their job. We should have batted a lot better. Some poor shot selections and a run out didn't help."

He added that the defeat would serve as a wake-up call as the tournament approaches the business end.

"Some good learning from this for us hopefully. A loss for this is not what a team wants but sometimes you need a little reminder to keep turning up every game and keep doing our best. These low totals, you want to make use of the Powerplay. So for me and Quinton (de Kock), it was about getting the team off to a good start, not necessarily getting off to a 60-run powerplay, but at least get to 35 or 45 without losing too many wickets would have been ideal and set us up.

"Because we knew the pitch was going to grip a bit and scoring runs after the powerplay and hitting boundaries might be difficult so we took a few chances that didn't come off. In the middle, we knew that their spinners will be difficult to score off, but having said that we have to find ways to score runs against good opposition on tricky pitches. That's something that we need to learn and figure out," he added.