Rajasthan Royals 199 for 3 (Samson 71*, Jurel 52*) to win Lucknow Super Giants 196 for 5 (Rahul 76, Hooda 50, Sandeep 2-31) with seven wickets
However, even so, RR were in dire straits at 78 for 3 after 8.4 overs, having ended the powerplay at 60 for 1. Ten overs into the chase, with RR needing 116, ESPNcricinfo’s predictor gave LSG 87.76% chance to win. But then Sanju Samson joined forces with an out-of-form Dhruv Jurel, both batsmen scoring half-centuries in a 121-run contrast in LSG’s century partnership between KL Rahul and Deepak Hooda, and took the Royals to victory by one over.
The result was Royals’ eighth win in nine games, taking them six points clear of second-placed Kolkata Knight Riders and securing a play-off spot with five games in hand.
Samson and Jurel remain calm
Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal had added 60 off 34 balls. But with two deliveries of the powerplay to go, Buttler was bowled by Yash Thakur – moving across his crease and missing a full toss that landed at the base of leg stump. In the next over, Marcus Stoinis had Jaiswal caught at deep cover.
LSG had opted for a black clay pitch for this competition and brought in 41-year-old Amit Mishra for the first time this season as an Impact Player. He accounted for RR’s Impact Player – Riyan Parag – caught at deep cover very soon after conceding a six. RR ran into trouble then, but Samson and Jurel led them out of it.
While Samson started his innings with form on his side – he was among the season’s leading run-scorers – Jurel had managed just ten runs in the previous three innings in six matches. They took their time, scoring just three runs off the first eight balls of their partnership, before bowling the next two overs for 29 runs. Jurel blasted Mishra for six and Thakur for four while Samson also picked up three boundaries.
The 14th over, by left-arm quick Mohsin Khan, proved to be the turning point of the game. Jurel was dropped twice in this over by Thakur and hit three fours and a six, eventually finishing unbeaten on 52 off 34 balls. Samson’s innings was less fraught with risk and he finished the match with six over fine leg to be dismissed for 71 off just 33 deliveries.
It’s not a very convenient field either
There were some cracks in the pitch in Lucknow, with the ball expected to erase them. The soil was also black, which historically has been more spin-friendly. When LSG batted, RR spinners R Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal combined for figures of 8-0-80-1. The solitary wicket was Ashwin’s – Deepak Hooda caught at long off – and it was only his second wicket in eight games this season.
LSG’s spinners didn’t have much success during the chase either, although there wasn’t much of a coolness, with Krunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi and Mishra all bowing out in seven overs for figures of 1 for 60. While Krunal bowled faster and wider. conceding only 24 from his four overs, Mishra and Bishnoi proved costly.
RR delimits LSG at the beginning and end
Trent Boult did what he almost always does – he strikes in the first over. Quinton de Kock had started the match with boundaries from the first two balls, but his stumps broke from the third. And in the second over Sandeep Sharma edged the ball through the gap between Stoinis’ bat and pad as he tried to drive and bowled him.
LSG were 11 for 2 when Hooda joined captain Rahul and they made the recovery at a brisk pace, fighting back by smashing four boundaries in the last two overs of the powerplay. Rahul then took Avesh for 21 in the eighth over, hitting and swinging for a six over midwicket and fine leg, and pulling a free stroke for another four. LSG were 94 for 2 at the halfway mark, with Rahul reaching 50 off 31 balls. He and Hooda continued the onslaught, taking 32 off the next two overs. Hooda reached his half-century from 30 deliveries before being bowled by Ashwin to end his partnership with Rahul on 115 off 62 balls.
With eight overs to go and plenty of wickets in hand, LSG were primed for a strong finish but it didn’t happen for them. Although they only lost two other wickets, they were those of Nicholas Pooran and Rahul – for 76 off 48 balls – and LSG managed to score only 25 runs in the last three overs of their innings.
Himanshu Agrawal is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo