Right-arm pacer Avesh Khan starred with the ball as Lucknow Super Giants handed a narrow two-run loss to Rajasthan Royals in a last-ball thriller at Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur on Saturday. This turned out to be RR’s fourth consecutive defeat and second loss on trot by a slender margin. The team had lost its previous match in the season to Delhi Capitals in a thrilling Super Over. To add more to their poor luck, RR went on to lose the game vs LSG by only two runs.
While reacting to RR’s latest defeat, former IPL chairman Lalit Modi came up with a funny post on social media.
“Something wrong with Rajasthan Royals this season in the IPL. They would be prime for a Chokers trophy if we had one,” he wrote.
Something wrong with @rajasthanroyals this season in the @IPL They would be prime for a #Chokers trophy if we had one
— Lalit Kumar Modi (@LalitKModi) April 19, 2025
Talking about the game, Yashasvi Jaiswal scored 74 off 52 for RR in the chase of 181 but Avesh’s 3 for 37 overshadowed it.
Earlier, Aiden Markram scored 66 runs off 45 balls while Ayush Badoni hit 50 off 34 as LSG posted 180 for 5 after their captain Rishabh Pant won the toss and opted to bat first. Abdul Samad’s late blitzkrieg (30 not out off 10 balls) that included four sixes in the final over bowled by Sandeep Sharma also helped LSG’s cause. For RR, Wanindu Hasaranga was the pick of the bowlers, returning figures of 2 for 31 in his quota of four overs. This was RR’s fourth consecutive defeat in IPL 2025.
From being in cruise control for most part to losing the way in the end, RR skipper Riyan Parag took all the blame on himself for the narrow defeat.
In the chase, victory looked a foregone conclusion when openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and teenager Vaibhav Suryavanshi blasted off like a rocket, stitching together an 85-run partnership in the ninth over.
Things were going great for the hosts with Jaiswal striking a superb 74 off 52 deliveries and an equally belligerent Parag smashing 39 off 26 balls.
But both were dismissed by LSG pacer Avesh Khan in the 18th over, more on account of the poor selection of shots.
RR could not take the shock of losing two well-set batter and finally fell two runs short.
“Really hard to process all the emotions. Don’t know what we did wrong. We were in the game till the 18th or 19th over. I don’t know. I blame myself. I should have finished that game in the 19th over. We have to put up a game collectively,” said Parag, who led the team on Saturday due to a side strain to regular skipper Sanju Samson.
The last over, also bowled by Avesh, was one which saw the LSG bowler putting his years of experience to test and coming out winner. He also got rid of the dangerous Shimron Hetmyer to snuff out the RR challenge.
(With PTI Inputs)
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