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Lucknow Super Giants head coach Justin Langer hailed rising left-arm pacer Arshad Khan for the all-round show that he put up against the Delhi Capitals in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024.
When all seemed lost for LSG while chasing 209, Arshad raised hopes of a comeback with his counter-attacking knock. Free-scoring Nicholas Pooran had lost his wicket to Axar Patel, leaving LSG tottering at 101/6 with still more than eight overs left to play. While the rest of the batters failed, Pooran was remarkable for his fiery 61 off 27 deliveries. Arshad took the fight to the DC bowlers after a couple of deliveries to understand the Delhi surface. He tonked a maximum straight down the ground in Kuldeep Yadav's over. After that, the 26-year-old went on a run-scoring fest. "I think Arshad is a very, very good cricketer. He swung the ball early, he is a good fieldsman and to be able to bat like that, he is a very good package. I thought, while watching the tournament, that he has good potential and he showed some of that tonight. Particularly with his bowling, he can be a real handful and a very good all-round cricketer," Langer said in the post-match press conference while praising Arshad. Arshad struck five towering sixes and three boundaries in his unbeaten knock of 58 off 33 deliveries. While the majority of stadiums have witnessed mammoth totals being put up by teams, LSG have experienced a mixed bag of games in their home stadium. The dominance of the batting side and high-scoring powerplay in the first innings have contributed to high-scoring chases. Amidst the high-scoring games, Langer feels that Lucknow's surface has emerged as the best wicket in the ongoing season. "I think Lucknow wicket is the best cricket wicket in the competition because there has been a real contest between bat and ball. Whereas a lot of this tournament has been one-sided towards the bat. We haven't capitalised on the powerplay like some of the other teams have. I thought if we had been a little bit more intelligent with our batting today, it was a chaseable score on this wicket," Langer stated. There has been a lot of talk about the recent high-scoring trend in the ongoing season of the cash-rich league. DC head coach Ricky Ponting had previously stated that the team that was more effective in their batting would win the tournament. As the game continues to go through a transformation, Langer expressed his eagerness to see if players could play "ultra-aggressive" cricket in the upcoming T20 World Cup. The marquee event is set to be played in June in the USA and the West Indies. "So much has transformed the game and whether they can continue to do it in the World Cup, only time will tell but it has certainly been ultra-aggressive cricket," Langer said. LSG's chances of qualifying for the final four are still alive despite their 19-run defeat. They can reach 14 points but their negative net run rate of 0.787 could turn out to be the deciding factor. LSG will play their final game of the group stage on Friday against the Mumbai Indians at their home stadium. (ANI)
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