Lucknow: Skipper Sanju Samson hammered a 33-ball unbeaten 71 and Dhruv Jurel struck his maiden IPL half-century as Rajasthan Royals (RR) defeated Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) by seven wickets in an Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 match here on Saturday.
Sanju blasted seven boundaries and four sixes in another brilliant innings to help RR recover from three quick wickets. Jurel scored 52 not out off 34 balls as the two raised 121 runs for the fourth wicket partnership to guide RR to a comfortable victory.
After LSG skipper K L Rahul scored a 48-ball 76 and Deepak Hooda hit 50 off 31 to take the home team to 196/5, RR rode on superb batting by Sanju and Jurel to reach 199/3 in 19 overs and move closer to playoffs.
With this win, table-toppers RR moved up to 16 points from eight wins from nine matches, opening up a big six-point gap at the top of the table. LSG remained in fourth position with 10 points, the same as second-placed Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in third spot and Delhi Capitals (DC) in fifth position. They have played nine matches while KKR and SRH have played eight matches each. DC have completed 10 games.
Chasing 197 for victory, RR got off to a fine start with Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal raising 60 runs for the opening wicket partnership. Buttler struck 34 off 18 balls while Jaiswal managed 24 off the same number of balls.
Buttler, who had blazed to an unbeaten 107 off 60 balls against KKR 10 days back, faced a couple of anxious moments against Matt Henry and Mohsin Khan. He struck a four and scored three off Henry followed by a boundary in the fifth over. He hit Yash Thakur for a four in the sixth over before the bowler came back to get revenge, castling the batter with a slower one.
Jaiswal fell on the same score as RR slumped to 60/2 in the seventh over and when Riyan Parag followed him back into the dugout for 14 off 11 balls, they slipped to 78/3.
However, Sanju held the innings together along with Jurel. LSG grassed a couple of catches and failed to capitalise on a dreadful mix-up between Sanju and Jurel to effect a run out.