RR vs LSG: Marcus Stoinis' crucial breakthroughs aid Super Giants' successful fight back against Royals at fortress

The ongoing Indian Premier League 2023 clash between Rajasthan Royals and Lucknow Super Giants is seemingly going down the wire. Meanwhile, after winning the toss, the RR skipper Sanju Samson opted to field first in their first home game at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. The decision turned out to be spot on with the way things began for the home side. Trent Boult, the spearhead of the Rajasthan side, started with a terrific maiden over.

Thereafter, openers KL Rahul and Kyle Mayers, after an early vigil in tough conditions, started to make some runs and posted 82 runs in 10.4 overs. Apart from them nobody could put enough runs on the board and fell cheaply. Only Pooran contributed with 29 runs and ran himself out. Eventually, the visitors finished with 154/7 on the board.

On the contrary, both the Rajasthan openers, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Jos Buttler played with intent and gave their team a good start. Just when they were looking dangerous, the Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis took charge of the LSG bowling unit. He stuck to the off stump line and reaped rewards for it as Jaiswal tried to guide the ball away from short third-man but ended up hitting straight into the hands of Avesh Khan.

Shortly after in the 14th over, he bowled a middle-leg stump line which got stuck a bit on the pitch leading to Buttler mistime his shot in an attempt to clear deep mid-wicket and failing to get enough elevation and getting holed out to Ravi Bishnoi. Marcus Stoinis finished with his four-over spell by conceding just 28 runs and scalping two wickets.

Rajasthan Royals lose their first game in Jaipur after Stoinis derails their run chase

As a result of removing the dangerous-looking openers, the RR skipper Sanju Samson failed to make any impact as he got run out in a rather miserable fashion. Post that the home side kept losing wickets at regular intervals as nobody really got going under the run-chase pressure. In another notable performance for the LSG, Avesh Khan scalped three wickets to completely derail the opponent who once looked safe enough to achieve the required target. Padikkal, Hetmyer and Jurel were the key victims who could have changed the complexion of the match had they stayed a bit longer at the crease.

Consequently, Rajasthan Royals fell short by 10 runs despite Riyan Parag's short cameo in an attempt to attain the target. But it simply was not enough for the home side and they succumbed to some good death overs bowling by the Lucknow Super Giants. With this result, both teams have eight points each with the Royals still sitting at the top based on a better net run rate (NRR).