KL Rahul's Lucknow Super Giants held Sanju Samson's Rajasthan Royals at the latter's home in Jaipur to win the 26th match of IPL 2023 by 10 runs. The game went down the wire but LSG emerged victorious with their regular scalps as their pacers starred in the defence of the 155-run at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur.
LSG pacers Avesh Khan and Marcus Stoinis shared five wickets between each other. The former was tasked to bowl the final over of the game with RR sensing a comeback. But he got two wickets in the over and denied RR a win at their homecoming. This is also the lowest total defended in this season of IPL so far.
It was another solid start from the RR openers as Yashasvi Jaiswal and Jos Buttler batted smartly. They helped RR go to 47/0 in the powerplay. As they were racing away at the halfway stage, LSg applied breaks to their chase. Marcus Stoinis first sent back Jaiswal on 44 before Samson got run out and Buttler fell in the 14th. It was not Hetmyer's day either as he went back for 2 off 5 balls.
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the death overs, Parag and Padikkal threatened to take the game away from LSG. A 13-run 18th over and a 10-run 19th over kept them in the hunt with 19 required off the final 6. They hit Stoinis for 13 and then amassed 10 from the most economical bowler Naveen-ul-Haq. Parag hit a four off the first ball of the 20th over but Avesh got the wickets of Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel to leave RR with a 10-run loss.
Lucknow Super Giants posted a total of 154 in the first innings. Kyle Mayers hit his third fifty in the tournament. KL Rahul and Mayers started steadily before the duo looked to attack. Meanwhile, Rahul was sent back by Jason Holder in the 11th over, when LSG were at 82. Ayush Badoni was promoted up the order but he could not leave an impact and was bowled on 1. Mayers was also outdone by Ashwin as he produced a brilliant over, where he got Hooda and Mayers in the 14th over. Pooran and Stoinis joined hands and played smartly to first eye in and then take the attack to the bowlers. Stoinis finished at 21 from 16, while Pooran got 28 from 20 balls as LSG scored 154.