TATA IPL 2024: Royals Beat Giants by 20 Runs Despite Rahul, Pooran's Half-Centuries
Nicholas Pooran's 63 and K.L. Rahul's 58 proved insufficient as Rajasthan Royals (RR) secured a 20-run victory over Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the fourth match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at Sawai Mansingh Stadium. Despite their efforts, Lucknow Super Giants fell short in their chase of 194, a total powered by an unbeaten 82 from skipper Sanju Samson and 43 from Riyan Parag. Lucknow's chase stumbled early on as Trent Boult struck twice in consecutive overs, removing Quinton de Kock and Devdutt Padikkal. Boult, recovering from being struck for four by de Kock in his first over, returned with a fullish delivery outside leg, leading to Nandre Burger taking an easy catch at fine leg.
Boult then removed Padikkal for a duck, who was in his debut inning for LSG. The seasoned pacer from New Zealand went slightly on the shorter side of the length this time while angling it into the left-hander. The ball pitched on or about the off stump and came back in while not entirely taking off from the pitch. Padikkal had shaped to swipe - perhaps seeing the length - and so it was too late by the time he tried to bend. Nandre Burger, who came in as an Impact Player then removed Ayush Badoni for one run.
After the early setback, Deepak Hooda and skipper K.L. Rahul pulled LSG back into the game as they both stitched a partnership collecting boundaries and maximums. Hooda's first two scoring strokes were a six and a four in consecutive balls as he used Burger's pace to pick the deep third boundary before Rahul recovered from another helmet-thumping bouncer from Boult to slog-sweep R. Ashwin over deep midwicket for six. LSG finished the Powerplay at 47 for 3.
Yuzvendra Chahal struck in his first over to extend his lead at the top of the IPL all-time wickets stats. It was an appropriately breezy knock from Hooda, 26 from 13 all told, including a second six over deep midwicket off Avesh Khan. But his attempt to charge Chahal failed, as Dhruv Jurel judged well to take the catch five meters in from the rope. Lucknow reached 76 for 4 at the halfway mark, with Pooran surviving a diving attempt from Riyan Parag at long-off to bring up his first six. But the chase was far from done yet, as Burger bowled an expensive third over conceding 17 runs including a six and two fours from Rahul.
Boult returned to bowl his final over but conceded 20 runs, including two sixes and a boundary. In the meantime, Rahul reached his fifty off 35 balls, providing a well-paced response to the early setback in the powerplay. Pooran, on the contrary, displayed sensible batting, focusing on rotating the strike efficiently. Rajasthan Royals managed to stay competitive by maintaining a run rate of approximately two runs per ball. Following the strategic time-out, KL Rahul seemed eager to accelerate and took on the wide deliveries from Sandeep Sharma but ended up finding Jurel in the covers. Rahul departed after a commendable innings of 58 runs off 44 balls, concluding a partnership of 85 runs off 52 balls, as Marcus Stoinis stepped in to continue the battle.
Sandeep Sharma executed a superb 19th over, conceding only 11 runs, which left Avesh Khan with the task of defending 27 runs in the final six balls. Avesh impressed with his wide outside yorker, meeting the captain's expectations by allowing just six runs. It marked an anticlimactic conclusion for the Giants, who ultimately lost the match by a margin of 20 runs.
