In the 20th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022, Rajasthan Royals (RR) beat Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) by three runs. Scintillating bowling performances from Yuzvendra Chahal and Trent Boult managed to restrict the opponents in a last-over thriller.
Rajasthan Royals had to bat after losing the toss. Jos Butler walked in to bat with a new batting partner, Devdutt Padikkal (29). The openers put together 42 for the first wicket within the powerplay before Butler was clean bowled by Avesh Khan in the sixth over. The inaugural champions had a collapse in the middle-overs when Padikkal, Sanju Samson and Rassie van der Dussen were dismissed within the span of eight balls. The responsibility of setting up a good total was on Shimron Hetmyer (59*) and Ravichandran Ashwin (28 retd out). Hetmyer took his time to get his eye in while Ashwin also kept the ball pushing for singles and doubles for ticking the scoreboard. The two batsmen had a valuable partnership of 68 runs which put the Rajasthan-based team in a commanding position. After smashing two sixes and putting out a good effort with the bat, the Indian off-spinner was retired out in the 19th over to make way for Riyan Parag. The Caribbean southpaw kept clearing the boundaries till the last ball and set up a target of 166.
Trent Boult set the momentum for the defence by dismantling KL Rahul‘s willow on the very first ball of the second inning. RR pocketed five wickets within the first 12 overs, which derailed the IPL debutants’ batting line-up. After conceding runs in the death overs, the match went into the last over with 15 needed off the last six deliveries. The debutant, Kuldeep Sen bowled the last over and gave away only 11 runs to attain two important points for his team.
For LSG, Marcus Stoinis (38*) was the star with the bat as the Aussie came out to bat at number eight and smashed the RR bowlers in the death overs to keep his team in the game after the top order debacle. Krunal Pandya (22), Quinton de Kock (39) and Deepak Hooda (25) made some contributions with the bat that wasn’t good enough for the team.
Yuzvendra Chahal was the pick among the bowlers for picking four wickets. Boult grabbed two wickets while Prasidha Krishna and Kuldeep Sen had one wicket each.
For LSG, Krishnappa Gowtham and Jason Holder had two wickets each while Avesh Khan pocketed one wicket.
Following this fixture, Rajasthan and Lucknow have acquired the first and fifth position respectively with six points each. Chahal was adjudged Man of the Match for his four-wicket haul.
Scorecard:
Rajasthan Royals: 165/6, Overs 20, Shimron Hetmyer 59, K Gowtham 2/30
Lucknow Super Giants: 162/8, Overs 20, Quinton de Kock 39, Yuzvendra Chahal 4/40