Rajasthan Royals start IPL campaign with 20-run win, Sanju Samson named MOTM

JAIPUR: Sanju Samson's blazing knock and Trent Boult's brilliant bowling helped Rajasthan Royals (RR) start their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 campaign with a 20-run win against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium on Sunday.

KL Rahul scored 58 for LSG by while Nicholas Pooran played an unbeaten knock of 64. For RR, Sanju Samson scored 82 runs and Trent Boult bagged two wickets while Nandre Burger, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Sandeep Sharma secured one wicket each.

RR won the toss and opted to bat first. Sanju Samson's brilliant innings of 82 runs and his 93-run partnership with Riyan Parag took his side to a total of 193/4 runs.

Defending a target of 193, Trent Boult provided Rajasthan Royals with their first breakthrough by removing Quinton de Kock for 4 and struck again by removing Devdutt Padikkal. Burger then took the wicket of Ayush Badoni for 1. After losing three wickets in quick succession, KL Rahul and Deepak Hooda produced a good partnership.

Yuzvendra Chahal then dismissed the dangerous-looking Deepak Hooda for 26. After the dismissal of Hooda, Nicholas Pooran joined Rahul at the crease to form a good partnership.

After Rahul slammed his fifty, Sandeep Sharma took his first wicket of the day and dismissed him for 58.

Ravichandran Ashwin then took the wicket Marcus Stoinis for 3.

Pooran and Krunal Pandya pushed hard for thw win, but RR proved too good on the day as they started their campaign with a 20-run win over LSG.

Brief score: Rajasthan Royals 193/4 (Sanju Samson 82*, Riyan Parag 43; Naveen-ul-Haq 2-41) vs Lucknow Super Giants 173/6 (Nicholas Pooran 64*, KL Rahul 58; Trent Boult 2-35).