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Lucknow Super Giants captain Krunal Pandya lauded his side's fighting spirit after their thrilling one-run win over Kolkata Knight Riders that took them to the IPL play-offs on Saturday.

LSG's regular skipper K L Rahul was ruled out of the tournament earlier this month after injuring his right thigh in a match against Royal Challengers Bangalore and Krunal was handed the captaincy. He did an impressive job, leading the side into the play-offs.

"First reaction is satisfaction. We never gave up; we were put under lot of pressure but credit to the boys.

"At one stage, they were 61 for 1 but I've seen it before that at this level 2-3 tight overs and we're in the game. And there was some grip for the spinners as well," he said.

Krunal was in awe of KKR left-handed batter Rinku Singh's big-hitting abilities.

"Rinku has been special this year; every game when he's there you can't take it easy."

A disappointing KKR skipper Nitish Rana expressed hope of coming back stronger next season after learning lessons from a disappointing outing this year.

"The result wasn't in our favour, but there are a lot of positives from the season. Hopefully we come back as a better team," he said.

"You have to win back-to-back, and I feel bad since we had the ability finish games off."

Nitish was also all praise about Rinku's performance.

"Looks like I have spoken Rinku all 14 times that I have held the mic after a match! I really don't have words to define him. If he can bat that way in that situation, then he can do anything."

• IPL 2023