A fine batting display by Shimron Hetmyer and some fine bowling helped the Rajasthan Royals beat the Lucknow Super Giants by three runs at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
LSG won the toss and opted to bowl first as almost all teams have done in this year’s IPL and the decision seemed to have worked in their favour as RR struggled to get going initially.
The opening stand between Jos Buttler and Devdutt Padikkal was worth a good 42 off 31 balls but it came at a rate that didn’t worry LSG too much and things only got worse for RR when they collapsed to 67/4.
At this point, Shimron Hetmyer (59 off 36) and R Ashwin decided to quietly take stock of the situation and just play out a few overs. It turned out to be a vital decision. The duo took their time before they got going but their stand of 68 off 51 proved to be a match-changing one.
And in a new twist, the stand was ended not by LSG but by RR themselves. With a few big-hitters still sitting in the dug out, they decided to retire R Ashwin (28 off 23). It was the first time that a batter has been retired out in the IPL.
The big-hitting, though, was all being done from the other end. Hetmyer started his innings sedately and struggled to play the big shots on a wicket that was sticky at times. But he scored 38 runs off the last 11 balls he faced and in the process, he helped RR reach a very competitive 165/6 at the end of their 20 overs.
On the bowling front, Jason Holder got plastered for 50 runs in his four overs.
In reply, the LSG innings seemed to flounder even before they could stand thanks to Trent Boult. The left-arm pacer claimed wickets off the first two legal deliveries of the innings.
For starters, he went around the stumps to KL Rahul. It was a full delivery and it swung late too. The LSG skipper couldn’t get any bat on it and walked back to the dressing room with a duck to his name.
The second ball was a wide but Krishnappa Gowtham was gone off the third ball and there’s nothing like wickets to put the opposition down.
LSG kept losing wickets and at 102/7 after 15.5 overs, it pretty much looked like curtains for their chase. But Marcus Stoinis (38 off 17) had plans of his own.
With some crazy hitting in the company of the lower order, he made it 15 runs needed off the last 6 balls. This after they needed 49 from 18 balls. A big 19-run over by Prasidh Krishna gave LSG a proper chance going into the last over.
The youngster Kuldeep Sen, playing his first IPL match, was given the responsibility of bowling the last over of the match. He had impressed with his pace but this was going to be all about his nerves.
He started off by giving just 1 run off the first four balls to make it 14 runs needed off 2 balls. Stoinis got a four off the penultimate ball and a six off the last ball but it was the Royals that won the match by 3 runs.
Also impressive for RR was Yuzvendra Chahal who ended up with match figures of 4/41.
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