END OF OVER:20 | 9 Runs 1 Wkt | LSG: 154/8 (25 runs required, RR: 7.70)
- Mohsin Khan9 (7b)
- Avesh Khan1 (2b)
- Prasidh Krishna4-0-32-2
- Obed McCoy4-0-35-2
The super sunday's done and there's still only one team that's officially qualified. That'll change in the next few days as the games go on. You can catch all the action here on ESPNcricinfo. For now, it is a goodbye from me, Ekanth, on behalf of my fellow commentator, Vishal Dikshit, and our scorers, Ranjith P and M Venkat Raghav.
Trent Boult, POTM for his 2 for 18 and 17* (9): Happy to get swing, some days are better than others. I'm happy with the wickets. I have a simple game with the ball, I try to pitch it up and am happy to swing it. But not happy at no. 8 but we'll see how it goes there. Neesham's catch was good, the intensity in the field was high. It's nice to be on the right side of the result. I'm not surprised that today's four was my first but I'm discussing my batting at a press conference which I didn't think would happen. It's a tough place to bowl, foreign for me. It offers a lot of learnings and opportunities, and this is an exciting tournament to be a part of.
Sandeep: "Just loved the post match conversation between Sanju and Harsha"
Sanju Samson, RR Captain: This win was satisfying. The atmosphere is chilled and nice, it's not easy to maintain it when there are losses and we have done it well. Batting first suits our approach well, we want to bat positively and the bowling unit is good as well. (On returning to a conventional batting order) Decisions are judged by results, Ashwin did well last game as well. (On fielding) The intensity in the field was good. Special mention to Neesham who brought a lot of energy. (On using Ashwin in different phases) The bonus of having quality spinners is you can use them anywhere. (On speaking tamil in the middle) I do speak a lot of tamil, speak to friends and watch movies. (On batting approach) Every batter played well without complicating or analyzing too much. So we did well despite being a batter short.
Aayush: "What is the qualification scenario for the Rajasthan royals after this game ????" Our stats team says both RR and LSG just have to make sure they don't lose too badly, thanks to RCB's poor NRR. RCB will have to win by around 80 and RR lose by around 80, for RCB to go above RR, but RR play after RCB.. so they have an advantage.
Sarik: "Rahul assuming more responsibility than he should affecting his strike rate. If he had played an inning of 40 runs on 20 balls then it could have been a different result " Yes, but Boult was sensational upfront. Playing him out made sense.
Royals are now placed second on the Points Table thanks to this win.
KL Rahul, LSG Captain: It was a gettable target, a good pitch. New ball was assisting the bowlers. We were good with the ball, the batting group has not performed collectively in a few games. We have to go back and get better. The pitch at Pune was harder. This was a better pitch. There was seam movement earlier and they bowled well. Losing two wickets was bad, we've lost games because of that before. So we need to find ways to get a good start when there is movement with the ball. Executing what we want to is the aim. Holding our nerve and give ourselves a chance to play out the new ball or play out a good spell. There's often enough time to make up and go big from there.
11:27 pm: Royals complete a 24 run win against LSG, handshakes all round. Their bowling has been excellent with Boult setting the table upfront. Ashwin bowled well in the middle, wickets were never too far away throughout the innings. Hooda and Krunal got a partnership going but Royals had enough runs in the bank for the required rate to impose itself. The bowling at the end was good enough to keep Stoinis away from bringing it as close as last time.