After beating Lucknow again, Rajasthan Royals have reached now second place. Rajasthan Royals defeated Lucknow Supergiants by 24 runs in the crucial match of IPL 15 on Sunday. It is Rajasthan’s second consecutive win against Lucknow this season. And with this, the team has reached second place in the points table with 16 points. Rajasthan won the toss and elected to bat first, and scored 178 runs for six wickets. Lucknow’s team could score only 154 runs for eight wickets.
Bolt’s great game with bat and ball
New Zealand’s fast bowler Trent Boult played an important role in Rajasthan’s victory. He scored an unbeaten 17 off nine balls with two fours and then picked up two crucial wickets in 4 overs for just 18 runs. Apart from this, openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Devdutt Padikkal played brilliant innings for Rajasthan. Jaiswal scored 41 off 29 balls, while Padikkal scored 39 runs in 18 balls.
Disappointing batting
Lucknow’s batting was again poor in chasing the target. Captain Lokesh Rahul got out for ten runs, and Quinton de Kock scored only 7-runs. Deepak Hooda fought from the Lucknow side and scored his fourth 50 plus score in the current IPL season.
Runs came off everyone’s bat in RR
Opener Yashasvi Jaiswal (41) along with useful innings from captain Sanju Samson (32) and Devdutt Padikkal (39), helped the team score 178 for six. Jaiswal took the second wicket with six fours and a six in 29 balls and shared a crucial 64-run partnership with Samson. Samson hit six fours in his 24-ball innings. Padikkal hit five fours and two sixes in his aggressive 18-ball knock. In the last over, Trent Boult (17) not out along with Ravichandran Ashwin (10) made an unbroken partnership of 26 runs in 14 balls to take the team’s score to 178. Ravi Bishnoi took two wickets for Lucknow. While Avesh Khan, Jason Holder, and Ayush Badoni took one wicket each.
2nd Match: Gujarat Titans Beat Defending Champion Chennai By 7-Wickets
Top-ranked Gujarat got the second consecutive win over Chennai. The team of Gujarat Titans, playing for the first time in IPL, proved to be heavy again on the defending champion Chennai Super Kings. Gujarat beat Chennai by seven wickets in the match played on Sunday and consolidated their position at the top of the points table. Gujarat defeated Chennai for the second time in a row this season. Chennai won the toss and scored 133 runs for five wickets. In reply, Gujarat won by scoring 137 for 3 in 19.1 overs.
Saha became the Man of the Match
Chasing the target, opener Wriddhiman Saha scored a half-century for Gujarat. He played an unbeaten inning of 67 runs in 57 balls, scoring the third half-century of this season. Man of the match Wriddhiman Saha hit eight fours and a six.
Dhoni unhappy with his own decision
MS Dhoni said after the match, ‘The decision to bat first was not a good one. It was difficult to hit the fast bowlers in the first half, it was the same against the spinners.’ He said, ‘Sai Kishore bowled well. We could have sent Shivam Dube up, but the objective of bringing N Jagadeesan into the team was not served.