Lucknow, April 27: Skipper Sanju Samson led from the front with an unbeaten 33-ball 71 while Dhruv Jurel made 52 not out off 34 balls to guide Rajasthan Royals to a seven-wicket win over Lucknow Super Giants, in their IPL match here on Saturday.
Chasing 197, Samson and Jurel shared unconquered 121 runs for the fourth wicket to chase down the target in 19 overs.
Earlier, skipper KL Rahul hit a 48-ball 76 while Deepak Hooda made 50 off 31 balls to guide Lucknow Super Giants to a decent 196 for 5 against Rajasthan Royals.
Sent into bat, LSG rode on 115-run third-wicket stand between Rahul and Hooda to put up a fighting total.
Sandeep Sharma was the most successful bowler for RR, returning with figures of 2/31. Earlier, KL Rahul (76) dug deep with Deepak Hooda (50) as Lucknow Super Giants managed a competitive 196/5 against Rajasthan Royals in their Indian Premier League clash here on Saturday.
Rahul and Hooda gave LSG a solid footing with a 62-ball 115-run stand for the third wicket after early blows, but the failure of others meant the hosts could not capitalise on the hard work by the two.
Rahul’s 48-ball 76 with eight fours and two sixes was his fourth fifty of the season while Hooda banished his poor string of scores to make his first big score this IPL.
Trent Boult was unfazed after being hit for two fours on the trot by Quinton de Kock, knocking down the South African’s off-stump on the third ball of the game.
Sandeep Sharma (2/31) left last match’s centurion Marcus Stoinis in awe with a peach, getting the ball to nip back in and sneaking in between the Australian’s bat and pads to hit the middle stump.A four-ball duck was what Stoinis could follow up with after his magnificent century against Chennai Super Kings.
A little slow to pick at the start, Rahul and Hooda did well to make up the lost ground.Rahul, however, was lucky when he shuffled across on his right to expose all three stumps and went on his knees to attempt a slog sweep off Sandeep in the sixth over.
Sandeep and RR skipper Samson could only look on in disbelief after the ball missed the batter and the off-stump by just a few centimetres.LSG’s ascend began in the eighth over when Rahul smacked Avesh Khan for 21 runs including two sixes.
Hooda welcomed back Boult with an 18-run 11th over including two fours, but the right-hander perished immediately after completing his fifty. (PTI)
