IPL 2023: It was Mark Wood’s day – KL Rahul hails England’s pacer

Lucknow Super Giants captain KL Rahul heaped praise on Mark Wood for his exemplary spell in the third match of IPL 2023 after the team’s 50-run win against Delhi Capitals at their home ground in Lucknow on Saturday.

Wood bowled a fiery spell as he consistently bowled above 145 km/h and breathed down the neck of the opposition. The right-arm gun pacer dismissed Prithvi Shaw and Mitchell Marsh with thunderbolts that crashed into the stumps on consecutive deliveries.

Wood then accounted for Safaraz Khan with a short-pitched delivery and also dismissed in-form Axar Patel and Chetan Sakariya. The England fast bowler returned with impressive figures of 5-14, which is the second five-wicket haul for an English bowler in the IPL after Dimitri Mascarenhas.

Thus, Wood played an instrumental role in restricting Delhi Capitals at 143-9 in their 20 overs after LSG posted 193 runs on the board in the first innings. Wood was also awarded the Player of the Match for his fine bowling show.

KL Rahul said in the post-match presentation, “It was Wood’s day today, it’s a dream for a fast bowler and a team. He made it count. Overall, the bowling group did well and put pressure on the batters. We are not going to make too much of it, we’ll take confidence from it. It’s T20 cricket, you need to turn up everyday and be ready for the fight. We don’t want to think too much about this win.”

Earlier in the match, Kyle Mayers scored a whirlwind knock of 73 runs from 38 balls and Rahul also showered praise on his opening partner.

He added, “It was a great start. We were clueless of the pitch, nice way to start. We’ll take confidence from this win. Toss is not in our hands, with the new rules you get to play with the team you want. Gives great depth in bowling and batting. I thought we were 30 runs above par. The way Kyle (Mayers) batted. We took an aggressive approach against the spinners and put them under pressure. I thought they started well, but we came back well.”

It was a perfect start for Lucknow Super Giants and they will look to build on the same. Mayers and Wood were brilliant for the KL Rahul-led team and they dominated Delhi Capitals throughout the match.

LSG will next face Chennai Super Kings on Monday at the Chepauk Stadium.