It was not pretty. It was not the high-scoring spectacle that a packed house anticipating Vaibhav Sooryavanshi might have wanted. But Rajasthan Royals got the job done, defending 159 to beat Lucknow Super Giants by 40 runs and climb to second place on the IPL 2026 points table. For LSG, it was a fourth consecutive defeat and their third in a row at home.
A Scrappy Innings Saved by Ravindra Jadeja
RR’s batting was far from fluent. Sooryavanshi, playing his first IPL season with enormous expectation on his young shoulders, began promisingly with two fours off his first two deliveries before going eight balls without scoring. Mohammed Shami had Yashasvi Jaiswal glove a bumper to the keeper and Dhruv Jurel nicking an outswinger for a golden duck, while Mohsin Khan’s disciplined seam bowling eventually had Sooryavanshi hoicking one to extra cover. RR were 32 for 3 after four overs and in serious trouble.
Hetmyer and Parag offered some middle-order resistance but fell in quick succession to leave RR at 77 for 5 in the 11th over. Jadeja, batting with a revised target in mind rather than personal milestones, took the innings by the scruff of its neck late. He hit just three boundaries between overs 12 and 18 but ransacked 20 off Mayank Yadav’s final over. Impact Player Shubham Dubey contributed a handy cameo to push the total to 159. The last two overs produced 32 runs, turning what looked like a below-par score into a defensible one.
How Rajasthan Royals Dismantled LSG’s Chase
Jofra Archer set the tone immediately. A vicious bumper in his second over hurried Aiden Markram into a top edge and Jurel completed the catch behind the stumps. Nandre Burger had Rishabh Pant caught behind off a bottom edge in between, and with Ayush Badoni run out early, LSG were sinking at 11 for 3 inside the powerplay.
Nicholas Pooran showed brief signs of life with a sumptuous flick and back-to-back fours off Brijesh Sharma, but Jadeja defied the match-up odds and had him caught at long-on for 22. Mitchell Marsh was the last man standing, playing himself in carefully amid the chaos and bringing up a measured half-century even as the asking rate climbed past ten. His dismissal to Burger in the 16th over, with LSG needing 55 off 27 balls, ended the contest entirely.
Archer finished with 3 for 20, Burger took 2 for 27 and Brijesh claimed 2 for 18 as LSG were bowled out for 119 in 18 overs, 40 runs short of their target.
Mayank Yadav returned from nearly a year on the sidelines due to a stress fracture and bowled consistently above 140kph, touching 150kph at times, but could not convert pace into wickets on a night when RR’s bowlers held their nerve better.
LSG now sit ninth on the table, level on points with Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, both of whom have a game in hand. The pressure at the bottom of the table is building, and for Lucknow, time is running short.
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