Kyle Meyers’ responsible batting and organized bowling attack got 10 run victory to the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in match 25 of IPL 2013 held at the Sawai Mansingh Indoor Stadium in Jaipur on April 19. But the Rajasthan Royals (RR), which were advancing on the path of consecutive victories, suffered a defeat at home.

Rajasthan Royals’ captain Sanju Samson won the toss and elected to bowl first. Lucknow Super Giants scored 154 runs for the loss of 7 wickets in 20 overs. Chasing a target of 155 runs, Rajasthan Royals could only score 144 runs in the 20 overs and lost the match.

Rajasthan Royals who started the chase got off to a good start despite the slow batting. The opening pair of Yasshav Jaiswal and Jos Buttler scored 87 runs in 11.3 overs for the first wicket to fall. Jaiswal got out after scoring 44 runs in 35 balls (4 fours, 2 sixes). Jos Buttler scored 40 runs (41 balls, 4 fours, 1 sixes) and surrendered the wicket.

Captain Sanju Samson went to steal an unwanted run and got run out. Explosive batsman Shimran Hetmayer scored only 2 runs and surrendered the wicket, which gave a huge shock to the team. Devdutt, who fought till the last over and scored 26 runs in 21 balls, gave a disappointing catch. Due to this, RR completely lost the hope of victory. In the end, Ryan Parag scored 15 runs, Ashwin scored 3 runs and remained at the crease.

Avesh Khan took 3 important wickets for Lucknow Super Giants and Marcus Stoinis shone with 2 wickets. Despite having a strong batting force, LSG failed to collect a huge total against Rajasthan Royals. LSG managed to collect a modest total in this match as they were not allowed to score at the expected pace.

An opening partnership of 82 runs was secured at the fall of the first wicket, but the run rate was slow for LSG. Skipper KL Rahul failed to impress in the power play as well. Openers Kyle Meyers and KL Rahul scored 82 runs in 10.4 overs. KL Rahul, who batted at a strike rate of 121.87, scored only 39 runs in 32 balls. Kyle Meyers, who showed slow batting, also got out for 51 runs (3 sixes, 4 fours) in 42 balls. Ayush Badoni and Deepak Hooda performed poorly. Marcus Stoinis scored 21 runs in 16 balls and Nicholas Pooran scored 28 runs in 20 balls. LSG scored 154 runs in 20 overs losing 7 wickets. For Rajasthan, Ravichandran Ashwin took 2 wickets, Trent Boult, Sandeep Sharma and Jason Holder shone with one wicket each.