Royals' bowlers on song as KL Rahul's Super Giants restricted to 154-7

At the time of going to press, RR were 50-0 after seven overs.

Returning to their fortress after four years, Rajasthan Royals bowled with a lot of discipline to keep Lucknow Super Giants at 154 for seven in their Indian Premier League match here on Wednesday. At the time of going to press,  RR were 50-0 after seven overs.

On a pitch not conducive for strokeplay, Kyle Mayers top-scored with 51 before Marcus Stoinis (21 off 16) and Nicholas Pooran (28 off 20) helped the team cross 150. Trent Boult bowled brilliantly to finish with figures 1-16 in four overs, while Ravichandran Ashwin was also excellent with the ball, ending with 2-23 from his four.

Seasoned New Zealander Trent Boult bowled two brilliant overs to justify RR skipper Sanju Samson’s decision to field first after winning the toss. As Boult, one of the world’s leading seamers for more than a decade, went about his task in his usual manner, KL Rahul looked clueless and the pressure created by the crafty bowler got to the struggling LSK captain.

Also Read: 'Most boring thing': Kevin Pietersen lambasts KL Rahul for ultra-slow knocks in IPL 2023

Unable to free his arms, Rahul ended up playing a Sandeep Sharma delivery in the air but the young Yashasvi Jaiswal fluffed the chance. He was on six at the time. After he added another six runs to his total, Rahul got another chance when Jason Holder, who normally has a safe pair of hands, dropped a skyer after running backwards from mid-off.

This was seven balls after Jaiswal had a shy at the bowler’s end and missed a run out chance with Rahul well out of crease. Those two missed chances miffed Samson no end but RR did not have to pay a heavy price as Rahul got out for an unconvincing 32-ball 39. Having consumed that many deliveries, Rahul would have liked to carry his bat though the RR innings, but Holder had him with a nicely executed slower ball.

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