Rajasthan Royals sealed their spot in the playoff stages of the Indian Premier League 2022 after a win against Lucknow Super Giants, making the battle for the final spot an interesting affair. Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Capitals, Punjab Kings, Sunrisers Hyderabad, and the Kolkata Knight Riders are all gunning for the all-important place, which will see them through to the knockout stages of the game.
The Royals posted a total of 178/6 after batting first, with quite a few batsmen making some valuable contributions. The bowling, which has been their strength in this tournament, once again delivered, getting rid of the top order batsmen very early on in the innings, and were able to successfully close out the game, winning by 24 runs.
Sanju Samson won the toss and elected to bat, a decision that has been working well for teams lately. They did not get off to the best of starts. The impressive Avesh Khan cleaned up the mercurial Jos Buttler in the third over as the Englishman walked back to the pavilion for just two runs.
Samson promoted himself up the order on a good batting pitch and was instantly able to make an impact, scoring a couple of boundaries early on. Yashasvi Jaiswal took on the Lucknow bowlers to great effect. The two batsmen added 64 for the second wicket before Samson’s promising innings came to an abrupt end, trying to hoick the ball over extra cover, but only managing to slice it to cover-point.
Devdutt Padikkal made his intentions clear from the very first ball. It was evident the Karnataka man was given a free license to attack, and that is what he did, smashing the bowlers all around the park. Nevertheless, both Jaiswal and Padikkal were dismissed in a short gap as Lucknow looked to make a comeback into the game.
The bowling was excellent up until the 18th over, when Trent Boult and Ravichandran Ashwin struck a few important boundaries to take their side from a sub-par total to an extremely competitive one at that.
LSG suffered a disastrous start. Both Quinton de Kock and Ayush Badoni were done away with off successive deliveries by the imperious Boult. The early wickets forced Lucknow skipper KL Rahul to go into a shell, as the right-hander ate up dot balls, further piling up scoreboard pressure as the asking rate went up to 11 in the fourth over of the innings.
Rahul’s innings ended just at the time when things were starting to get a little better, exposing the slightly vulnerable LSG middle-order. Deepak Hooda was in decent touch, while Krunal Pandya, who came in after the skipper’s dismissal, was also looking dangerous with the bat.
The two did a commendable job of putting LSG’s innings together again, adding 65 for the fourth wicket before Krunal was dismissed courtesy of a superb tag-team effort at the fence by Riyan Parag and Buttler. The game, which was perfectly set up for a photo finish, suddenly became a lot more one-sided than expected, especially after Hooda departed for a splendid 59.
Jason Holder’s forgettable season with the bat continued as Lucknow dug themselves into a massive hole. With nearly 60 to get off the final three, there wasn’t much Marcus Stoinis could do, and the Super Giants lost the game by 24 runs.
Brief scores
Rajasthan Royals 178 for 6 (Jaiswal 41, Padikkal 39, Bishnoi 2-31) beat Lucknow Super Giants 154 for 8 (Hooda 59, Boult 2-18, Prasidh 2-32, McCoy 2-35) by 24 runs
