Against the grain of IPL come games like this once in a while where batters are kept in check because of the conditions, the quality of bowling or the scenarios. Jaipur has a history of being difficult to visiting teams, but Lucknow Super Giants made it harder for themselves by playing along expected lines that hinged on a top-order anchor against a quality bowling attack. That never happened but they still backed it with a stellar bowling performance where Naveen-ul-Haq gave just 19 runs before Avesh Khan took two wickets in the final over to seal a 10-run win.
The average first innings total in Jaipur is 158 but since this has been a season of successful chases, Rajasthan Royals were justified in choosing to chase. To their credit, RR put up an extremely tidy bowling performance on a pitch that wasn’t tailor-made for stroke-making. Equally alarming was LSG’s lack of intent from the start, failing to break free till the ninth over when Yuzvendra Chahal was lofted for two sixes and one four through the leg side.
In fact, almost predictably, Chahal was the most expensive bowler with an economy of 10.25 but Royals would have gladly taken that on a day Trent Boult—starting off with a maiden—and R Ashwin conceded just 39 runs between them. “If we would have been a little smarter, we could have kept them down by 10 more runs,” Ashwin told the broadcaster during the innings break.
“You can’t get away here like some other grounds. You need to play good cricketing shots here and you get value for that. Not one of those pitches where you can come in and tee off.”
In this age of information, data and several scoring models in place, LSG probably were too shackled by the prejudices about the pitch. KL Rahul can be a creature of habit when it comes to excruciatingly slow starts in T20 but Kyle Mayers– he is one of the quickest batters in this IPL – too was scratchy, failing to score a boundary for 12 balls. With Boult seaming the ball on stifling lines, it was that kind of powerplay too for LSG as they crawled to 37 in six overs, hitting just four fours and a solitary six. Royals’ fielding was sub-par though, dropping Rahul twice, but they weren’t left to regret those.
After a brief acceleration, Royals pulled it back again when Jason Holder foxed Rahul with a slower delivery that he couldn’t hit past the boundary. Ayush Badoni, under pressure to accelerate after being promoted to No 3, ramped the ball onto his stumps. Deepak Hooda too failed to clear the boundary and by the 15th over LSG were 109/4 after Mayers was bowled through the gate by an Ashwin slider. There was still enough time for Nicholas Pooran and Marcus Stoinis to go big but Royals kept up the pressure through Holder, Sandeep Sharma and Ashwin who conceded 20 runs in the following three overs.
Royals understandably didn’t want to take any risk, especially Jos Buttler who laboured to five off 14 balls before opening his front leg and muscling Yudhvir Singh for a six over deep midwicket. Three fours off Khan in the next over and Royals looked back on track, ending the powerplay on 47/0. Once Ravi Bishnoi and Amit Mishra were deployed though, the scoring trickled down to singles and the odd boundary.
Buttler unleashed a reverse sweep off Mishra for a four, followed by a switch hit in his next over that perfectly dissected the gap for another boundary. Eager to join in, Yashasvi Jaiswal carted Stoinis for a six before guiding him to Khan at short third man. This triggered a small implosion as Royals lost Sanju Samson, Buttler and Shimron Hetmyer in the space of 16 balls. But batting depth and clarity of target allowed Royals to mount another comeback, this time through Devdutt Padikkal, who hit Stoinis for three fours in the 18th over. Needing 29 off 12, Royals ran into a composed Naveen who conceded a six but ended with a dot to make it 19 from six. Riyan Parag started off with a four but Khan dismissed Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel off consecutive balls to topple the table-toppers at their home.
