Rajasthan Royals captain, Sanju Samson, led from the front with a fighting half century to lead his team to a comfortable 20-run victory in their IPL match against the Lucknow Super Giants at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Sunday afternoon.
The Royals posted a highly competitive total of 193-4 to which the Super Giants could reply with just 173-6 having crashed to 11-3 at the start of the run-chase.
Samson made a cautious start and was never quite able to ‘catch up’ despite a flurry of boundaries in the closing overs finishing with an unbeaten 82 from 52 deliveries with three fours and six sixes.
Nonetheless, on a pitch offering some assistance to the bowlers, it proved more than enough.
.@rajasthanroyals start on the right note ✅
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 24, 2024
Record a convincing win and earn the important 2️⃣ points courtesy Captain Sanju Samson
Scorecard ➡️ https://t.co/MBxM7IvOM8#TATAIPL | #RRvLSG pic.twitter.com/jLkRYD0j7D
England white ball captain, Jos Buttler (11), edged a drive to ‘keeper KL Rahul while opening partner Yashasvi Jaiswal looked in glittering touch with 24 from just 12 balls until becoming entangled with a Mohsin Khan bouncer and miscuing his pull to mid on.
Riyan Parag belted 43 from 29 balls in a third wicket stand of 93 with Samson before top-edging a hook against Afghan seamer, Naveen-ul-Haq, to deep square leg while Guyanese hitman, Shimron Hetmeyer, could only only scratch out five runs from seven balls.
LSG crashed to 11-3 with Quinton de Kock (4) flicking a poor, legside delivery from Trent Boult straight into the hands of long leg, Devdutt Padikkal (0) missing a straight one from the same bowler and Ayush Badoni (1) driving ‘super sub’ Nandre Burger straight to Jos Buttler at mid off.
But captain KL Rahul (58) steadied the innings in the company of the counter-attacking Deepak Hooda whose 26 came from just 13 balls with a pair of fours and sixes.
But both men were caught in the deep by Dhruv Jurel, Hooda hooking and Rahul slapping a wide drive to the cover sweeper.
It left Nicholas Pooran with a near-impossible asking rate of close to 20 per over and, although the dashing Trinidadian served up a quartet of fours and sixes in his 64* from 41 balls, it was too little, too late.
New Zealander Boult was the pick of the attack with 2-35 with his brace of early wickets once again proving decisive.
LUCKNOW SUPER GIANTS: KL Rahul (captain), Quinton de Kock (wkt), Devdutt Padikkal, Ayush Badoni, Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran, Krunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohsin Khan, Naveen-ul-Haq, Yash Thakur
RAJASTHAN ROYALS: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson (captain / wkt), Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Sandeep Sharma, Avesh Khan, Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal