The Rajasthan Royals fought back after losing early wickets to register a seven wicket win over the Lucknow Super Giants in Lucknow on Saturday, April 27, 2024.
Rajasthan's seamers did well to keep LSG down to under 200 before Sanju Samson and Dhruv Jurel guided the Royals home.
the best bowlers of the night...
Sandeep Sharma
One of the most under-rated bowlers in the IPL, the seamer gets better and better as the season progresses. Coming at the back of a fifer against the Mumbai Indians on April 22, Sandeep continued from where he left off.
He used his variations to good effect and bowled a Test match line and length. He got some movement early on in his spell and sent back LSG's No, 3 batter Marcus Stoinis bowled out with a peach!
A wobble seam, pitched up and swung back into Stoinis, invited the batter to drive, he missed and Sandeep's delivery crashed into the big Aussie's middle stump. The centurion from the last match, Stoinis was out for a duck in the 3rd over.
Sandeep bowled a couple of loose deliveries for which he was made to pay by K L Rahul and Deepak Hooda going for 10 in his second over.
The medium pacer was reintroduced at the backend and he got Nicholas Pooran out first ball in the 16th over. Pooran was just settling in and looking good for a big score, but Pooran was sent back, caught in the deep by Trent Boult. Pooran was Sandeep's 200th scalp in T20 cricket.
Sandeep gave only six runs in that over before wrapping up his spell with 20 runs in the 20th over and finished with figures of 2 for 31. His two wickets proved crucial as another 20-odd runs from either batter could have made life hard for Rajasthan in their chase.
Avesh Khan
Avesh Khan was expensive but he took the big fish to put a stop to any further big shots from LSG.
He was introduced in the attack in the 4th over and gave only six runs in his opening spell.
When he was brought back into the attack in the 8th over, Rahul and Hooda were already going after the bowling and were in no mood to stop as Avesh was carted for 21 runs.
Avesh was brought back in the 15th over and did well to keep it down to just 9 runs as Rahul clobbered him for another four. He got a crucial breakthrough in the 18th over when he had Rahul hole out to deep backward point, sending him back for 76.
Avesh's strike put a break on any hopes that LSG had of crossing the 200 run mark with Rahul's wicket.
Avesh, who has improved a lot in his death bowling, now has nine wickets from as many matches with an economy rate of 9.54 and is one of the big favourite to be on that plane to the Americas for the T20 World Cup, starting June 1.
Krunal Pandya
Krunal Pandya has quietly gone about his job this IPL. He may not have the numbers in the wickets but has mostly been frugal with his wonderful spells.
In nine matches he's got just five wickets but that is no testament to his bowling accuracy.
Earlier this week, playing against Chennai Supet Kings he gave just 15 runs in his 2 overs.
On Saturday, he continued from where he left off. While bowling in the middle overs to Sanju Samson and Dhruv Jurel, he kept them quiet in his first spell, giving just 10 runs off his first two overs.
His second spell went for 14 runs with Samson reverse hiitting the ball over point for a four. His figures read 4-0-24-0 and he conceded just the one boundary. While Krunal kept it tight at one, LSG were bleeding at the other and his superb miserly spell came to nought.
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