Lucknow Super Giants captain KL Rahul was happy with most of his decision-making as he led his team to a convincing eight-wicket win over defending champions Chennai Super Kings in the IPL on Friday. . Rahul had a good day at the office as he was very accurate with his changes to the bowling and also took two catches and a knock before returning to score 82 off 53 balls to win the match. “It feels good in the end and when you win it looks like you made all the right decisions,” Rahul, who was named man of the match, said in his post-match speech.

“It can’t all be good. It depends on the type of wickets we take and the type of batsmen we take. We spend time doing homework on tactics and strategy and we talk about them not being satisfied with one style of bowling.”

LSG were in control until Moeen Ali (30 off 20) and MS Dhoni (28 off 9) started a six-wicket spree, plowing CSK to 176 for 6.

“At the mid-way stage, I would be happy with 160. The wicket feels slow and has a bit of grip, but not too much. 160-165 would be ideal.

“But MSD walked in and the bowlers were scared. He walked in and the bowlers were under pressure and the crowd was really rowdy and he’s done that in the past.”

Rahul (82) and De Kock (54) chased 177 runs, batting with authority in their 134-run league win, the highest among all wickets at the Ekana Stadium Together, LSG posted 180 runs for 2 in 19 overs.

“I feel if we play well, we can chase it. I have been trying to assess the situation and it worked out today. The spin ball in Chennai, they tried to stop us,” he said.

“We tried to get a good start. Tried to beat them and luckily, it worked. When your partnership continues, you can try a few more times. I’m glad it happened.” CSK captain Rutula Ruturaj Gaikwad said his team was 10-15 runs behind due to the dew.

“Our game ended very well and couldn’t ask for more. But after the powerplay, we didn’t start the game until 14-15. We lost wickets quite often and fell behind 10-15.

“The batting was a bit difficult but with the impact player rule you need extra batsmen. The dew came later and it felt like 180-190 could be good.”

The CSK bowlers were unable to make a breakthrough as Rahul and de Kock bowled well in the powerplay and Gaikwad agreed that they need to bat better in the first six overs.

“[Bowling in the powerplay] This is an area we want to improve on and if we can get wickets in the power play it will put the opponents at a disadvantage. It’s nice to be able to play them again soon and I’ll be back with my homework,” he said.

The two teams will meet again in Chebauk on April 23.