Jaipur: After four years, the return was not pleasant for the Rajasthan Royals playing at their home. On a difficult pitch, even the big hitters of Rajasthan Royals could not reach their target of 155 runs against Lucknow Super Giants and the team lost by 10 runs. Lucknow registered their fourth win this season thanks to the all-round performance of Marcus Stoinis (21 runs, 2/28). On the other hand, this is Rajasthan’s second defeat in 6 matches.
Like Lucknow, Rajasthan’s innings also started. The explosive opening pair of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Jos Buttler also had to struggle for runs. Butler in particular looked more upset. At one point his score was 5 runs off 15 balls. Yashasvi Jaiswal hit some big shots and tried to reduce the pressure. However, there was trouble in increasing the pace of runs on a slow pitch.
Heavy run out on Rajasthan
Then, like Lucknow, as soon as Rajasthan got a blow, its wickets started falling. In the 12th over, Yashasvi Jaiswal (44) was dismissed after hitting a six off Marcus Stoinis. In the next two overs, the story of Rajasthan started changing. Sanju Samson was run out in the first run and then in the very next over, Stoinis returned Butler (40) to the pavilion.
In such a situation, the eyes were on Shimron Hetmyer, who chased a difficult target three days ago against Gujarat Titans with a blistering half-century. This time, however, he too could not walk and became a victim of passion. From here, impact player Devdutt Padikkal (26) got Rajasthan back with some great shots. Although this was not enough. The team needed 19 runs in the last over but Avesh Khan (3/25) took 2 wickets and gave only 8 runs.
Rahul again failed to play big innings
The batsmen had to struggle from the very first over on the Jaipur pitch on which big scores were expected. In front of him were out-of-form opener KL Rahul and in-form fast bowler Trent Boult (1/16). Rahul played the first over maiden of the innings. At the same time, explosive batsman Kyle Meyers also had to struggle.
Meanwhile, Rajasthan also dropped Rahul’s catches twice. Somehow both shared a partnership of 82 runs together. Then as soon as Jason Holder took Rahul’s wicket in the 11th over, Lucknow’s innings started faltering.
Important partnership of Stoinis and Puran
By the 14th over, Lucknow lost 3 more wickets. Kyle Meyers scored a fighting half-century but he was bowled on the best ball of Ravichandran Ashwin (2/23). Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran again tried to increase the pace of runs and played a big role in taking the team to 154 runs by sharing a 45-run partnership.
