‘A debut to remember’: Kuldeep Sen bowls a dramatic last over to ensure Rajasthan’s victory over Lucknow
Rajasthan (image source : BCCI)
Rajasthan took on Lucknow in the 20th match of the Indian T20 League 2022 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The match went down the wire and was a thriller of a contest.
Lucknow won the toss and decided that they will be fielding first. Rajasthan began their batting effort steadily. Devdutt Padikkal and Jos Buttler put up 42 runs for the first wicket before Buttler (13 off 11) was dismissed on the first ball of the 6th over. The Rajasthan batters failed to steady the ship and put up a healthy partnership as wickets kept falling at regular intervals. Within the 10th over of the innings Rajasthan was down to 67 for 4. Shimron Hetmyer staged a turnaround from here on with Ravichandran Ashwin as his partner. Ashwin was interestingly retired out by the Rajasthan team as they felt the need to up the scoring rate. Ashwin scored 28 off 23 deliveries. Hetmyer remained unbeaten on 59 off 36 deliveries at the end of the Rajasthan innings. On the back of Hetmyer’s brilliance, Rajasthan put on a total of 165 runs in their 20 overs. Krishnappa Gowtham was the pick of the bowlers for Lucknow picking up 2 wickets for 30 runs from his 4 overs.
Lucknow was rocked early in their chase. Trent Boult dismissed KL Rahul on the very first ball of Lucknow’s innings. Krishnappa Gowtham was dismissed in the next legal delivery and Lucknow was 1 for 2 down in the very first over. Jason Holder also did not last long as Prasidh Krishna dismissed him for 8 runs off 14 deliveries and Lucknow was reeling at 14 for 3. De Kock and Deepak Hooda got together at this stage and tried to steady the still now rocky progress of Lucknow. But after putting up a partnership of 38 runs Deepak Hooda was dismissed by Kuldeep Sen in the 10th over. Hooda was followed by Ayush Badoni and the chase depended mainly on Quinton de Kock who was looking resilient in the middle. After the end of the 15th over Lucknow was 97 for 5 wickets down. At this stage the target was 69 runs far away with 30 balls remaining. Krunal Pandya and Quinton de Kock were in the crease and Marcus Stoinis was still waiting to bat.
But Yuzi Chahal dismissed the set batter in De Kock in the 16th over and the pressure was completely on Lucknow. Marcus Stoinis came out to bat and did not lose his composure under pressure and trusted his own capability. He took the match deep and then slammed Prasidh Krishna for 19 runs in the 19th over and Lucknow required 15 runs of the last 6 balls. Kuldeep Sen was trusted with the last over by Sanju Samson. The young man bowled a beautiful over under pressure on his debut. The last over went for 11 runs and Lucknow fell short of the target by by 3 runs. Stoinis stayed not out at 38 from 17 deliveries. Chahal finished as the best bowler of Rajasthan with 4 wickets for 41 runs from his 4 overs. This was Rajasthan’s 3rd win in the Indian T2o League 2022 in 4 matches, they are now placed at the top of the table.
https://twitter.com/irbishi/status/1513183063043637249?s=20&t=YzGetho1ua1vXkhOaFXHJA
https://twitter.com/riaa0riaa/status/1513183859394813953?s=20&t=YzGetho1ua1vXkhOaFXHJA
https://twitter.com/IPL/status/1513184936290762754?s=20&t=KdK85R8nGzb8hYz9NuFQnQ
https://twitter.com/smritisinha99/status/1513187582934347784?s=20&t=hHaBTOmOcP54_EWthvfPNw
#RRvsLSG. Even DeKock unable to clear the ropes?
— Soma (@Visalmama) April 10, 2022
https://twitter.com/prateekv8/status/1513204605093560327?s=20&t=YzGetho1ua1vXkhOaFXHJA
Huge moment in the game, de Kock has been caught at long on – Chahal gets his second wicket#LSG – 101/6 (15.3) .. #RRvLSG #IPL2022https://t.co/BeoJSsXC9H
— Cricbuzz (@cricbuzz) April 10, 2022
Two unbelievable first balls bowled to KL already in the tournament.. Mohammad Shami in their opener and Boult tonight … Jeez, Trent’s on fire … #RRvLSG
— Jatin Sapru (@jatinsapru) April 10, 2022
Had to be Ashwin. A first retired out in the IPL. If it’s in the rule book, why not. Tactical game awareness > Set notional patterns. Well done, sir. #RRvLSG
— Jatin Sapru (@jatinsapru) April 10, 2022
https://twitter.com/MichaelVaughan/status/1513216764749959169?s=20&t=KdK85R8nGzb8hYz9NuFQnQ
Kuldeep Sen holds his nerve..RR WIN.#IPL2022 #RRvLSG https://t.co/fJSH2NngKl
— CricketNext (@cricketnext) April 10, 2022
https://twitter.com/ImRahulSharma3/status/1513216688627412992?s=20&t=KdK85R8nGzb8hYz9NuFQnQ
https://twitter.com/rajasthanroyals/status/1513216650363158530?s=20&t=KdK85R8nGzb8hYz9NuFQnQ
https://twitter.com/Sportskeeda/status/1513218022928175108?s=20&t=KdK85R8nGzb8hYz9NuFQnQ
