Mumbai. After an aggressive innings of 59 from Shimron Hetmyer, Man of the Match Yuzvendra Chahal (4 for 41) and Trent Boult (2 for 30) bowled Rajasthan Royals in a thrilling Indian Premier League match here on Sunday. Defeated Lucknow Super Giants by 3 runs.
15 runs were needed in the last over for Lucknow’s victory and Marcus Stoinis was present at the crease but debutant fast bowler Kuldeep Sen (1 for 35) bowled brilliantly to give Rajasthan victory. Stoinis scored 38 runs in an unbeaten 17-ball innings with the help of four sixes and two fours.
Batting first, Rajasthan scored 165 for six and then restricted Lucknow to 162 for eight. With this win, Rajasthan team reached the top of the table. Hetmyer stitched a 68-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Ravichandran Ashwin (28) to bring the team back into the match.
He hit six sixes and a four in his unbeaten 36-ball knock, taking full advantage of a simple catch by Krunal Pandya off Krishnappa Gautam. Ashwin retired in the 19th over. He thus became the first IPL batsman to return to the pavilion. Rajasthan team added 50 runs in the last three overs. While chasing the target, Trent Boult gave an amazing start to Rajasthan by sending Lokesh Rahul and Krishnappa Gautam to the pavilion in the first two balls. When he bowled Rahul, the same Krishnappa was leg before.
In the fourth over, the famous Krishna (1 for 35) got Jason Holder (08) caught by Ashwin. After this, Deepak Hooda and opener Quinton de Kock batted carefully, taking the team’s score to 31 runs for three wickets in the powerplay. During this, Hooda hit fours against Bolt and Famous. De Kock hit the first six of his innings against Sen, who came to bowl in the seventh over.
Sen, however, bowled Hooda in the tenth over to end his innings of 25 runs in 24 balls. De Kock hit a four against Chahal in the 12th over but the shrewd bowler trapped Ayush Badoni (five runs), who was in fine form, in his spin. He gave two big blows to Lucknow in the 16th over by dismissing Dekock and Krunal. Riyan Parag, who scored 39 runs in 32 balls with the help of two fours and a six, was caught by Riyan Parag, while Krunal was bowled after scoring 22 runs in 15 balls.
Now Dushmanta Chamira (13) who came to the crease to support Marcus Stoinis, got two fours off the bat. Stoinis welcomed Chahal for a six in the 18th over but the bowler completed 150 wickets in the IPL, taking his fourth wicket by bowling Chamira. Avesh Khan then ended the over with a six.
Now Lucknow needed 34 runs in two overs and Stoinis made the match exciting by hitting two sixes and fours in famous over. The team needed 15 runs in the last over and Sen’s first ball Avesh stealing a run gave Stoinis the strike but the young bowler bowled three consecutive dot balls to turn the match in favor of Rajasthan. Although Stoinis hit fours and sixes in the last two balls, it was too late.
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Earlier, after getting the invitation to bat, Devdutt Padikkal hit a four against Chamira (22 runs in four overs without success) in the opening over, then Jos Buttler (13) running in the same scintillating rhythm held the holder (2 for 48 runs). He opened his account by hitting a six and then a four.
Padikkal welcomed Ravi Bishnoi for two consecutive fours in the fourth over but the team could only collect five runs in the last two overs of the power play and during this Avesh (1 for 31) bowled Butler to give Lucknow the first breakthrough. Captain Sanju Samson (13) hit four boundaries against Bishnoi and Avesh but in an attempt to increase the run rate, Holder’s delivery was caught leg-before in the ninth over.
In the next over, Krishnappa (2 for 30) gave a double blow to the Rajasthan team. He bowled Rasi Van der Dussen (04) after sending Padikkal, who had so far held one end, to the pavilion after being caught by the holder. Padikkal scored the same number of runs in 29 balls with the help of four fours. Rajasthan team came under pressure after losing three wickets in 11 balls and seven runs. The pair of Hetmyer and Ashwin played cautiously in the next five overs, scoring just 25 runs, which included Hetmyer’s scintillating six against Krishnappa. Ashwin hit two sixes against Krishnappa in the first two balls of the 16th over to take the team’s score past 100. 16 runs were scored from this over.
Hetmyer picked up a six against Holder in the 18th over after completing a 50-run stand for the fifth wicket with Ashwin in 7.3 overs to pick up another six. After the second ball of the next over, Ashwin retired and returned to the pavilion.
Hetmyer completed his fifty in 33 balls by hitting two consecutive sixes in this over of Avesh Khan. Hetmyer and Riyan Parag hit sixes against Holder who came to bowl in the last over to take the team’s score beyond 160. Parag was caught after scoring eight runs off four balls. (agency)