IPL 2022, LSG vs RR, Top Performances: Sanju Samson-Yashasvi Jaiswal's 64-run stand, Deepak Hooda's 59 and Trent Boult's 2-18 are top performances. RR move to 2nd place.
Brief Scores: RR 178/6 (Jaiswal 41, Padikkal 39, Bishnoi 2-31) beat LSG 154/8 (Hooda 59, Stoinis 27, Boult 2-18) by 24 runs
Player of the Match: Trent Boult (2-18)
Game number 63 saw Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) coming face to face with Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Brabourne Stadium on Sunday evening. When these two sides faced off earlier in the competition, the Royals squeezed out a 3-run win.
After winning the toss, RR skipper Sanju Samson wanted to stick to their strength of defending totals and opted to bat first. Rajasthan went into this match with a couple of changes, as they replaced Rassie van der Dussen with Jimmy Neesham and Kuldeep Sen with Obed McCoy. Whereas the Super Giants went into this match with just one change, bringing in Ravi Bishnoi in place of Karan Sharma.
RR beat LSG by 24 runs
Lucknow had the best possible start to this game, when Avesh Khan dismissed Orange Cap holder, Jos Buttler in the third over of the innings as the stumps went cartwheeling all over the place. Avesh has bowled a total of three deliveries to Buttler in this season and has dismissed him twice and has given nothing away in those three balls.
The highlight of the powerplay was Lucknow’s pacers, who consistently bowled over 140 kmph. However, Sanju Samson and Yashasvi Jaiswal took calculated risks against the pace trio of Lucknow and punished their bad deliveries. After the first six overs, RR were 51-1 and were moving handsomely at around 8.3 runs per over. LSG spinners, in the middle overs, had taken 19 wickets so far, at a squeezing economy rate of just 6.90. On the other hand, Rajasthan’s batters had one of the best averages of 61.88 against spin in the middle overs amongst all the teams, scoring 8.84 rpo, while losing just seven wickets to them in the given period.
It was a battle between LSG spinners and RR’s middle-order batters. After a 12 run over against the first spinner introduced to bowl, Lucknow captain quickly resorted to pacers as Jaiswal and Samson were playing spin quite easily. Jason Holder didn’t disappoint, providing a breakthrough with the wicket of Samson as the 64-run stand between Jaiswal and Samson was broken. Even after their captain was dismissed, RR kept the run rate moving nicely, with the two young left handers, Devdutt Padikkal and Jaiswal taking charge. They both scored at a brisk pace took Rajasthan beyond the 100-run mark in the 11th over itself.
As Jaiswal was tiring, Padikkal didn’t let RR lose the momentum as he scored a quickfire 18-ball 39, at a strike rate of above 200. After both batters were dismissed in a span of two overs, Rajasthan had their finishers, Riyan Parag and Neesham at the crease with 123 runs on the board with six overs to spare. After few good looking shots, both Parag and Neesham were dismissed in a span of four deliveries with the onus on Ravichandran Ashwin and Trent Boult as they added a vital 26 runs off the final 14 balls, and gave RR a defendable score of 178 at the Brabourne wicket.
LSG didn’t quite have the best of starts as they lost two wickets in two balls from Boult and were reduced to 15-2. Soon after Quinton de Kock and Ayush Badoni were dismissed, KL Rahul followed them to the dugout. This was the fifth time that Rahul and QdK failed to reach 40 runs; LSG had lost on all the previous four occasions when this happened. A 65-run stand between Deepak Hooda and Krunal Pandya steadied the sinking ship of LSG, only to sink later courtesy some brilliant bowling by Rajasthan Royals who look the best team when it comes to defending totals.
As soon as Hooda was dismissed, LSG innings started to fall apart with some late strikes coming from the blade of Marcus Stoinis which wasn’t enough at the end of the day as Rajasthan won comfortably by 24 runs to go to second place on the points table and making it further interesting for the other five teams trying to cut it to the playoffs.
Top Three Performances from the game between LSG and RR, IPL 2022
Trent fired “thunderbolts” to shake LSG’s top order
Not many can exploit the new Kookaburra white ball like Trent Boult who swung the ball left and right and made the LSG openers dance to his tune. Giving just three runs in his first over, Trent dismissed Quinton de Kock with a ball swinging away from the left-hander, which QdK square cut but hit straight to the point fielder.
Badoni who was promoted up the order to bat at number 3, didn’t disturb the scorers much. Boult bowled a classical in-swing delivery to the right hander and facing that fast in-swinging delivery, the latter was struck plumb, right in front of the stumps and Boult was already celebrating in his follow through even before the umpire raised his finger as the ball was crashing into the middle stumps.
Boult had two in two and dismantled LSG’s run chase with those two consecutive wickets.
In a run chase of 179, where other bowlers were going at 6 runs and above per over, Boiult bowled an economical spell of four overs, giving just 18 runs and picking two crucial wickets. Boult has now taken 4 wickets in the powerplay in the two innings against LSG, whereas against other sides he has just picked three wickets in 10 innings. Surprisingly, Boult was experimental with the bat too as he scored 17 runs, which gave RR an additional cushion in their defence of the total.
Read More: IPL 2022, DC vs RR, Top Performances: Sakariya 2-23, Warner-Marsh 144-run stand keep DC alive
Deepak “Hood-Hood Dabangg”
With two wickets down with 15 runs on the board chasing 179, coming in to bat and facing the hat-trick delivery against Boult with his tail up, Jeez! Think of the immense pressure Deepak Hooda would have been under. But as they say, cometh the hour, cometh the man! Scoring a boundary on the very second ball of his innings, Hooda’s intention was very clear.
Rajasthan bowlers very bowling really well inside the powerplay and the required run rate was creeping up and was almost 9 runs per over, as LSG were at 34-3 after the first six overs. Hooda wasn’t fluttered by all this and played the game in his own style, picking the singles and battling out the difficult phase. Hooda had to bat deep for LSG to get to this target and he responded beautifully with a sensible knock.
Hooda targeted the Purple Cap holder, Yuzvendra Chahal, for a six and four off consecutive deliveries to put the latter under pressure. Hooda was playing very smartly as he targeted RR’s spin twin of Ashwin and Chahal and rotated the strike against the faster bowlers without taking much risks. Hooda and Krunal put on a much needed 65-run partnership and took LSG from 29-3 to 94-4. Hooda brought up his fourth fifty of the seasons in the 15th over and was all set to take the game away from Rajasthan but got out in a tragic stumping, where he walked down the wicket trying to loft Chahal for a six, inside-edged and the ball rolled back to wicketkeeper Samson who made a mess of it but unfortunately for Deepak, who didn’t even make an attempt to come back to his crease, he was given out stumped after a well-played knock of 59 runs off just 39 balls.
Read More: IPL 2022, GT vs LSG, Top Performances: Shubman's well-measured 63* takes GT into playoffs
Jaiswal-Samson 64-run stand anchors Rajasthan’s innings
Losing the Orange Cap holder, Jos Buttler, in the third over of the innings, the onus was on young Yashasvi Jaiswal and RR captain Sanju Samson, who was back to his beloved number three position. Smacking a boundary off the very first ball, Samson was off the blocks in some fashion. On the other hand, Jaiswal was showing impeccable timing. If Jaiswal timed the ball well, Samson timed it even better and it seemed like they were having an internal competition.
The spectators were awestruck by the Samson-Jaiswal show. Jaiswal was in a different mood on Sunday night, smoking 21 runs off Dushmantha Chameera’s over, where he smashed a six out of the Brabourne Stadium straight into Churchgate railway station nearby. The momentum had shifted towards Rajasthan and they kept the run rate moving above 8.
Samson-Jaiswal’s magnificent partnership of 64 off just 40 deliveries was crucial on this slow-paced wicket. The pitch was slow but, the left-handers were too fast, as another left-hander, Padikkal came and smashed a 19-ball 39 to completely change the momentum of the game. Scoring at a strike rate of above 200, It felt like Devdutt was batting on a different wicket altogether from the others. This was a different Padikkal than what we have seen at the RCB who would play at a strike rate of below 150.
Devdutt Padikkal, coming to bat at number 4, looked like a man on a mission. And the mission was to up the scoring rate, and boy! He was more than successful in doing that as he dismissed the LSG spinners all over the park.
Read More: IPL 2022, LSG vs KKR, Top Performances: QdK 50, Hooda 41, Pacers dismantle KKR; LSG go top of table
Points Table Scenario for LSG and RR
RR have moved to the second place while LSG have dropped to number 3. The points table is wide open now and this week will see a lot of competition amongst the teams to get to the coveted playoffs.
What’s to come
To blow away the Monday blues, Punjab Kings (PBKS) take on Delhi Capitals (DC) in a race to qualify for the playoffs at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai.
Comments