IPL 2024: Samson's 71 not out tops Rahul's 76 as Rajasthan beat Lucknow by seven wickets

Skipper Sanju Samson did a world of good for his chances ahead of the T20 World Cup team selection by hammering a 33ball unbeaten 71 and overshadowing a similar effort by Lucknow Super Giants captain KL Rahul 76 off 48 balls as Rajasthan Royals romped to a sevenwicket victory in Match 44 of Indian Premier League IPL 2024 on SaturdaySamson who struck his fourth halfcentury of IPL 2024 off 28 balls shared an unbeaten 121run partnership with Dhruv Jurel who scored his maiden IPL halfcentury as Rajasthan Royals cruised to 1993 in 19 overs in response to Lucknow Super Giants 1965 made possible by Rahuls superb innings and his 115run partnership with Deepak Hooda 50Samson who had scores of 82 69 68 before Saturdays superb knock blasted seven boundaries and four sixes in another brilliant innings to help Rajasthan Royals recover from two quick wickets and with help from Jurel who scored 52 not out off 34 balls raised 121 runs for the fourth wicket partnership to guide RR to a comfortable victory at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium hereAlso ReadNadal gets even with De Minaur at Madrid OpenWith this win table toppers Rajasthan Royals moved up to 16 points from eight wins from nine matches opening up a big sixpoint gap at the top of the table LSG remained in fourth position with 10 points the same as Kolkata Knight Riders 2nd Sunrisers Hyderabad 3rd and Delhi Capitals 5th They have played nine matches while KKR and SRH have played eight matches each DC are through with 10 matches so farChasing 197 for victory Rajasthan Royals got off to a fine start with Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal raising 50 runs for the opening wicket partnership Buttler struck 34 off 18 balls while Jaiswal managed 24 off the same number of ballsBoth of them were untroubled by the LSG bowling which lacked serious pace in the form of young tearaway Mayank Yadav who was expected to recover from his injury and play this matchButtler 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 picked pace by hitting Henry for a big six shuffling across and lapping it over the keeper 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 returned to get revenge castling the batter with a slower oneJaiswal fell on the same score as RR slumped to 602 in the seventh over and when Riyan Parag followed him back into the dugout for 14 off 11 balls Rajasthan Royals fell to 783 and the innings was looking to come apartHowever skipper Sanju Samson held the innings together and along with Dhruv Jurel raised an unbeaten 121run partnership for the fourth wicket as Rajasthan Royals capitalised on some shoddy performance by LSG in the field LSG grassed a couple of catches failed to capitalise on a dreadful mixup between Samson and Jurel to affect a runout and also misfielded on a couple of occasionsRajasthan Royals had applied the brakes in the middle and death overs but LSG could not do so with the ball as Sanju Samson finished the match with a flurry of shots hitting Mohsin Khan for a big six after the bowler had failed to run him out at the nonstrikers end He followed that up with a six off the last ball of the over after he and Jurel scored a single each in betweenIn the 19th over Samson hammered a four and a six off successive balls off Yash Thakur to finish the match and seal victory for RRSamson had started slowly and waited for his chances before exploding into action He came in at 601 and saw his team go down to 783 so his first seven shots were for singles A four off veteran Amit Mishra was followed by a couple of boundaries against Thakur Ravi Bishnoi was also mistreated as Samson hit him for backtoback fours in the 16th over A reversehit four off Krunal Pandya over point fielder was his best shot of the day before his powerhitting in the last couple of overs Samson completed his halfcentury off 28 balls as he went after the bowling with 84 needed off 48 deliveriesJurel was the more aggressive of the two Samson went berserk towards the end In the 14th over Jurel scythed scooped and pulled Mohsin Khan for 4 6 4 Off the fourth ball of the over Yash Thakur failed to time his jump and palmed the ball over at third man for a single Jurel was dropped once again by Jurel off Mohsin Khan near the shortthird region as the ball raced to the fenceJurel completed his maiden IPL fifty with a single off Mohsin Khan reaching the mark in 31 ballsAmit Mishra and Krunal Pandya were the best bowlers for LSG on the park on Saturday night as they fell short by a round 20 runs and then performed poorly in the field to further hamper their chancesAsked to bat first KL Rahul blasted a 48ball 76 reaching a cautious halfcentury off 31 balls while Hooda scored a 31ball 50 as LSG recovered from a precarious 112 in the second over to post a good scoreLSG got off to a poor start as Quinton de Kock after hitting backtoback boundaries to Trent Boult in the first over was cleaned up on the third ball by the lefthanded New Zealand pacer with one that nipped back a bit and went past the openers bat which came down late to crash into the stumpsSandeep Sharma accounted for Marcus Stoinis on the last ball of the second over as the ball swung in and went past to disrupt the furniture reducing LSG to 112 in two oversHowever LSG recovered well from the twin setbacks thanks to Rahul and Hooda as they raised 115 runs in quick time for the third wicket partnership Rahul got his third halfcentury while Deepak Hooda got his first halfcentury in 19odd matchesRahul scooped drove pulled and swept superbly in an excellent rearguard knock hitting eight fours and two sixes the only two sixes of the innings a far cry compared to the last couple of matches in which teams hit maximums in double figures In contrast RR batters hammered nine maximumsAfter a cautious start Rahul opened up by hitting Boult for a four off an inswinging yorker and was lucky to survive a ball from Ashwin that darted in just managing to sweep it away to the boundary The LSG captain continued to flourish hitting backtoback boundaries off Yuzvendra Chahal in the seventh over caressing a halfvolley through covers and following it up with a sweep behind square and the spinner strayed to leftThe 32yearold righthanded batter hammered Avesh Khan for 21 in the eighth over hitting his first six off the second delivery before hammering another six off a noball and following it up with a four off the freehit Just when it looked like he would reach the threefigure mark Rahul got out as Avesh Khan got his revenge as Boult picked a simple catch at deep backward pointHooda drove cut swept and used the switchhit well to score an exact fifty hitting Boult for boundaries off successive balls His four off Chahal in the 12over was his best shot of the night as he hammered seven fours in his 31ball 50Rajasthan Royals pulled back things a bit in the death overs conceding seven and six runs in the 18th and 19th overs before Ayush Badoni 18 not out and Krunal Pandya 15 scored 12 runs off the final over to ensure they reached a par score on this groundBrief scoresLucknow Super Giants 1965 in 20 overs KL Rahul 76 Deepak Hoods 50 Sandeep Sharma 231 lost to Rajasthan Royals 1993 in 19 overs Jos Buttler 34 Sanju Samson 71 not out Dhruv Jurel 52 not out Amit Mishra 120 Marcus Stoinis 13 by seven wicketsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever