LUCKNOW: Ravindra Jadeja played a lone hand for Rajasthan Royals, with a 29-ball 43 that took them from 62/4 to a respectable 159/6 against Lucknow Super Giants in an IPL match here on Wednesday.
LSG began the run chase on the worst possible note, losing all of their top three for ducks. Substitute fielder Ravi Singh’s deadly throw accounted for Ayush Badoni before RR’s in-form pacers, Nandre Burger and Jofra Archer, combined to remove Rishabh Pant (0 off 3) and Aiden Markram (0 off 6), leaving the Super Giants reeling at 11/3, chasing 160. It was all LSG in Lucknow, with veteran Mohammed Shami striking twice early as an inform Mohsin Khan prized out teen sensation Vaibhav Suryavanshi (8 off 11) early on in the first innings. This is the third time in three games that Royals’ top order has imploded and things have spiralled southwards for the franchise.
The experience and class of Shami (2/30 in 4 overs) the Test bowler stood apart while the lanky Mohsin (2/17 in 4 overs) was extremely disciplined, getting the ball to rear up and seam at the same time from awkward lengths. The duo between them removed the four best batters of Royals -- Shami getting rid of Yashasvi Jaiswal (22) and Dhruv
Jurel (0) off successive deliveries and Mohsin removing Sooryavanshi (8 off 11 balls) and Shimron Hetmyer (22 off 18 balls) in two different spells
The ever-improving Prince Yadav (2/29 in 4 overs) proved to be the ideal third dimension to the attack with his moving deliveries and timely dismissals. However, the day would be remembered for the artist that Shami has been with both red and white ball in his hand.
He bowled a sharp bouncer to Jaiswal that got big on him as the left-hander tried to hook it awkwardly and skipper Rishabh Pant timed his jump to perfection to pluck off a superb one-handed catch.
Pant, whose bowling changes were on point, had a second catch when Shami bowled a peach, fuller pitched on middle stump line to draw Jurel forward and it deviated late, kissing the outside edge of his bat.
In the case of Mohsin, he set up the young Sooryavanshi with five successive dot balls -- either pitched on hard length or slightly fuller before accounting for him in the last ball of the over, thanks to a brilliant catch from Digvesh Singh Rathi.
RIEF SCORES: RR 159/6 in 20 overs (R Jadeja 43; M Khan 2-17, P Yadav 2/29) vs LSG 74/4 in 12 overs (M Marsh 44, Archer 1/15) at the time of going to press