Cricket Highlights, 20 April: IPL 2023 (Match 26) – Rajasthan Royals vs Lucknow Super Giants

Rajasthan Royals vs Lucknow Super Giants (Match 26) – Highlights

Yesterday’s game was between the top two teams on the points table of this year’s IPL. There, table toppers Rajasthan Royals (RR) were defeated by 10 runs by Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), who are currently second in the table. However, losing this match did not change the position of the Royals in the points table.

The Royals won the toss in Jaipur and decided to bowl first. Super Giants collected a challenging score of 154 runs after losing 7 wickets in the scheduled 20 overs. In response, the Royals’ innings stopped after losing 6 wickets and they ended up scoring 144 runs. With that, LSG secured a breathtaking victory by 10 runs.

RR’s bowlers had a great start to the bowling at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium. However, they could not take any wickets in the first 10 overs. LSG’s two openers KL Rahul and Kyle Mayers took advantage of this opportunity. 82 runs came from their opening pair.

Jason Holder broke the opening pair by scalping the wicket of Rahul for the team’s 82 runs. He scored 39 runs off 32 balls with 4 fours and 1 six. But while Rahul failed to get a half-century, Mayers scored a half-century. But this Caribbean batsman could not take the team forward for a long time after making his fifty. He returned to the pavilion after scoring 51 runs off 42 balls with 4 fours and 3 sixes.

The team that lost the first wicket for 82 runs, lost three more wickets to score 104 runs. From there, Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran brought the team back into the match. But they could not accelerate the scoring rate. Super Giants finally got a fighting score of 154 runs based on Stoinis’s 21 from 16 balls and Pooran’s 29 runs from 20 balls.

Ravichandran Ashwin took the maximum number of 2 wickets for the Royals. Besides, Trent Boult, Sandeep Sharma, and Jason Holder took 1 wicket each.

RR’s two openers Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal got off to a great start coming down to chase this target. 87 runs came from the opening pair in 11.3 overs. Jaiswal returned to the dugout scoring the highest runs for the Royals, he made 44 off 35 balls, with 4 fours and 2 sixes. Another opener, Buttler scored 41 runs, but he played 40 balls to make that.

But then the match changed. Then the Royals’ run rate got slowed down by the bowling cannon of the LSG bowlers. Besides, they kept losing wickets regularly. Caribbean batsman Shimron Hetmyer also failed to stay at the crease. He returned to the pavilion after getting only 2 runs from 5 balls.

Rajasthan batsmen couldn’t get more than 8 runs whilst needing 19 runs in the last over. As a result, RR’s innings stopped at 144 runs. This match also holds the record for the lowest team score to win in this year’s IPL.

Avesh Khan took the maximum number of 3 wickets for Super Giants with 25 runs in 4 overs. Besides, Marcus Stoinis got 2 wickets. With that, Stoinis was selected as the player of the match for playing an important role in the team’s victory by scoring 21 runs from 16 balls.

After winning this match, Lucknow Super Giants are still in the 2nd position of the standings with 8 points from 6 matches. On the other hand, Rajasthan Royals are still at the top of the points table due to their higher run rate despite having the same number of points.

Rajasthan Royals vs Lucknow Super Giants Scoreboard

Lucknow Super Giants – 154/7 (20.0)

Rajasthan Royals – 144/6 (20.0)

Result – Lucknow Super Giants won by 10 runs

Player of the match – Marcus Stoinis

Lucknow Super Giants

Rajasthan Royals vs Lucknow Super Giants Playing XIs