Mukul Chaudhary was the hero of Thursday’s match, whose unbeaten half-century led Lucknow Super Giants to victory in a losing match. In this match played at Eden Gardens, Kolkata Knight Riders, batting first, scored 181 runs. In reply, Lucknow’s 7 wickets had fallen for 128 runs, Mukul demonstrated his ability by winning the match from there. KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane praised Mukul amid the discussion about the defeat and credited him for LSG’s victory.

Ajinkya Rahane said, “This defeat is difficult to digest. Really proud of the boys, the way we played. Mukul’s innings was decisive. The way he played his shots, in such matches, you do not want to find too many faults. There may be a few mistakes, but the credit goes to Mukul and that partnership.” There was a partnership of 54 runs between Mukul and Avesh Khan, in which Avesh had only 1 run.

Rahane further said, “The way Mukul batted was amazing. I thought our bowlers did their job well. When you lose a match, you think how you could have done better. The score of 180-185 was very good on this pitch. I thought credit should be given to the Lucknow batsmen and the way they batted.”

What did Mukul Chaudhary say?

Victory hero Mukul Chaudhary told after the match that his father had decided even before his marriage that he would make his son a cricketer. He said, “Even before my father’s marriage, he had a dream that his son should play cricket. Initially, our financial condition was not very good. I started playing at the age of 12-13. There were not many cricket academies in Jhunjhunu, so I went to Jaipur. I saw how fast T20 cricket was growing, so I went to Gurgaon and stayed there for 3-4 months.”