Pacer Avesh Khan picked 3-37, including defending nine runs off the final over, as Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) defended 180 with aplomb and beat Rajasthan Royals by two runs at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium on Saturday. At 156/2 in 17 overs, RR were very much in the hunt to complete the chase, as the equation read 25 runs off 18 balls. But Avesh, with his pinpoint yorkers, removed set batters Yashasvi Jaiswal and Riyan Parag for 74 and 39 respectively.
He then took out Shimron Hetmyer in the final over, while giving away only six runs, to keep RR to 178/5 and complete a memorable come-from-behind win for LSG, leaving everyone in the stadium stunned.
For RR, it was despair yet again as twice in a row, they had failed to close out straightforward chases. The defeat in Jaipur also meant that Sandeep Sharma leaking 27 runs in the final over, including giving away four sixes to Abdul Samad, did come back to pinch them hard, as RR slumped to their fourth consecutive defeat.
Chasing 181, Jaiswal began by whipping Shardul Thakur for four, before 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi announced himself on the big stage by backing away to carve an off-drive off Thakur over extra cover for six on his first ball. He then cleared his front leg to clobber Avesh down the ground for another six.
Suryavanshi got a fat top edge on a mistimed pull, but Prince Yadav put down the skier, and Ravi Bishnoi parried the ball over the boundary rope. After taking a four and six off Thakur, Jaiswal brought up RR’s fifty by slog-sweeping and hammering down the ground off Aiden Markram for back-to-back sixes, before pulling Prince for another maximum, as RR made 61/1 in power-play.
Jaiswal and Suryavanshi continued to march forward by taking boundaries off Digvesh Rathi and Ravi Bishnoi before the former got his second straight fifty off 31 balls. But LSG broke RR’s 85-run opening stand when Suryavanshi was beaten in flight by Markram and lost his balance, with Rishabh Pant quick to dislodge the bails. One brought two for LSG as Nitish Rana pulled straight to deep backward square leg off Avesh.
Jaiswal, who scythed balls through the backward point region for fun, found an able partner in stand-in captain Riyan Parag to ensure RR aced their chase. Parag flicked and thumped Prince for six and four respectively, before getting a glove edge off Digvesh for four and tonking Avesh for six.
Avesh, though, set the stage for turning the tables in LSG’s favour, by flattening Jaiswal’s middle stump with a perfect yorker before trapping Parag lbw with another yorker on off-stump. With the equation reading 19 runs off 11 balls, Shimron Hetmyer took two fours off Prince via a drive and flick, before flicking to short fine leg off Avesh in the final over.
After David Miller dropped a sitter off Shubham Dubey, a boundary was needed off the last ball, and Avesh conceded only one run to help LSG pick crucial two points and help them move back to the top four in the points table.
Previously, after being 54/3, Aiden Markram and Ayush Badoni lifted LSG to 180/5 by hitting 66 and 50 respectively, while sharing a partnership of 76 off just 49 balls for the fourth wicket. Abdul Samad took an erring Sandeep to the cleaners by smashing four sixes in the final over that went for 27 runs and being unbeaten on a sensational 30 off just 10 balls to give LSG much-needed momentum.
Electing to bat first, LSG suffered two hammer blows in power-play:- Mitchell Marsh top-edged the pull to square leg off Jofra Archer, while Nicholas Pooran couldn’t make the most of the reprieve given on six as he was trapped plumb lbw by a clever slower ball from Sandeep.
Rishabh Pant’s attempt to break free from his painful struggle resulted in a top edge on a reverse sweep off Wanindu Hasaranga. The ball hit Dhruv Jurel on the chest, but the wicketkeeper recovered quickly enough to complete the catch on the second attempt. Badoni, coming in as an impact player for Marsh, survived an LBW attempt while missing a sweep off Hasaranga, and he then joined forces with Markram, who had hit five boundaries by then, to lead LSG’s resurrection.
Markram smacked Hasaranga for consecutive sixes down the ground and over long-on, before taking three runs off Sandeep to bring up his fifty off 31 balls. From the other end, Badoni hammered and scooped Sandeep for successive fours, before he and Markram hit a leg-side six each off Theekshana.
But Hasaranga broke the well-set partnership as Markram reached out for a lofted drive, but holed out to long-off for 66. Badoni then got two boundaries, including one off the glove edge, to bring up his fifty in 33 balls.
On the very next ball, he looked to slice but was caught by a deep point. It took Abdul Samad’s four powerful sixes off juicy balls from Sandeep in a whopping final over worth 27 runs to take LSG to exactly 180, which was enough to get a narrow win.
Brief Scores:
Lucknow Super Giants 180/5 in 20 overs (Aiden Markram 66, Ayush Badoni 50; Wanindu Hasaranga 2-31, Tushar Deshpande 1-26) beat Rajasthan Royals 178/5 in 20 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 74, Riyan Parag 39; Avesh Khan 3-37, Aiden Markram 1-18) by two runs
