Rajasthan Royals finally applied a brake on Lucknow Super Giants' three-match winning streak as KL Rahul-led side suffered a 3-run loss in their IPL match on Sunday.
Put to bat first, star West Indies batter Hetmyer smashed an unbeaten 36-ball 59 to lift RR from 67 for four to 165 for six in 20 overs. Trent Boult (2/30) then struck twice in a sensational opening over, while Chahal (4/41) picked up four wickets but Marcus Stoinis blasted two fours and four maximums in his unbeaten 38 off 17 balls to conjure up hopes of a turnaround. The match went down to wire but the Kuldeep Sen, making his IPL debut, showed great nerves as he defended 15 runs in the last over as RR limited LSG to 162 for eight.
The gamble of sending Stoining down the order seemingly backfired the LSG which cost them the match. In the post match presentation, skipper Rahul revealed the reason of the sending the Australian all-rounder late.
"Obviously, today we needed one good partnership which we never got going. At the end, it was excellent from Stoinis to get it close and to do it in his first game of the season will give him confidence. It was always a plan (to hold Stoinis back), we know how dangerous he can be in the last five overs. As I said, we have a lot of all-rounders, so many options and so we could shuffle the batting order a bit. We like to be a bit unpredictable a bit," Rahul said.
Stoinis hammered two sixes and one four in the penultimate over to keep Royals on their toes. In the last over, Avesh did the perfect job of taking a single off the first ball he faced. But Kuldeep bowled three consecutive deliveries to win it for Royals. Stoinis hit a four followed by a maximum but it could not get LSG over the line as they lost the match by a narrow margin of three runs. The Aussie all-rounder remained unbeaten for 38 off 17 deliveries.
Kiwi speedster Boult stunned LSG with the new ball. With a huge inswinger from around the wicket, he got through Rahul’s defences to uproot the stump. After Rahul’s second golden duck of the season, Krishnappa Gowtham got a surprise promotion up the order. After bowling a wide, Boult came from over the wicket and brought the ball into the right-handed batter. Gowtham was bamboozled by the swing and got out for a golden duck.
"I didn't see it (the ball that got him from Boult), if I did I could have done something about it. Have to give it to him. Was a good ball. We have a good team, and have enough options with bat and ball. Even when we were 20-odd for three, we knew we had a chance. These kind of totals can be a bit tricky at times, plan was to throw the bowlers off their lengths a bit but didn't happen. But we're a side that would continue to try being unpredictable in the coming games too. We couldn't execute our plans at the end, the yorkers and other plans. If you miss your plans, batters these days will put you in trouble. We'll try to work harder and handle the pressure better. One bad game won't change things, will be a good learning for us," Rahul further added.
