Jaipur, March 24
Following a defeat against Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 on Sunday, Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) skipper KL Rahul said "we need to find ways to win."
Riding on Sanju Samson's onslaught and Trent Boult's brilliance, Rajasthan Royals (RR) started their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 campaign with a win at home as RR registered a 20-run victory against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium here.
The LSG skipper scored a fifty but it went in vain. The wicket-keeper batter scored 58 runs off 44 balls with the help of four boundaries and two sixes.
The 31-year-old asserted that the Gujarat franchise bowled well in patches. He further stated that we made a few mistakes in the matches and that cost us.
"Bowled well in patches. The target wasn't a lot. We made a few mistakes. Good to see Mohsin back. Naveen has been crucial for us. We will learn from the mistakes. We need to find ways to win games of cricket. Langer has bought a lot of calmness to the group. We enjoy having him around. Missing a season was really painful," Rahul said in the post-match presentation.
Coming to the match, the hosts Rajasthan Royals won the toss and opted to bat first.
Openers Jos Buttler (11) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (24 in 12 balls, with three fours and a six) departed without making much impact, reducing the team to 49/2. Following that, a 93-run partnership happened between Riyan and skipper Sanju, who scored 82* in 52 balls, with three fours and six sixes. Dhruv Jurel (20* in 12 balls, with a four and six) finished off well to take RR to 193/4 in 20 overs.
LSG was reduced to 11/3 in the chase of 194 runs. Then Deepak Hooda (26 in 13 balls, with two fours and two sixes) along with KL stabilised the innings a bit. Following Hooda's dismissal, which left LSG at 60/4, KL stitched an 85-run stand with Nicholas Pooran (64 in 41 balls, with four boundaries and four sixes). But a win was not meant to be for LSG as RR made a comeback with timely wickets, reducing LSG to 173/6 in 20 overs.
Trent Boult (2/35) was the pick of the bowlers for RR. Sandeep, Ashwin, Nandre Burger and Yuzvendra Chahal took a wicket each.
Samson was given the 'Player of the Match' award for his half-century.