LSG Vs RR, IPL 2024 Highlights: Royals' Sanju Samson, Dhruv Jurel Clinch 7-Wicket Win Against Lucknow Super Giants

Skipper Sanju Samson led from the front with an unbeaten 33-ball 71 while Dhruv Jurel made 52 not out off 34 balls to guide Rajasthan Royals to a seven-wicket win over Lucknow Super Giants, in their IPL 2024 match on Saturday. Chasing 197, Samson and Jurel shared unconquered 121 runs for the fourth wicket to chase down the target in 19 overs. Get all the cricket scores and updates of the LSG Vs RR match in IPL 2024, right here. (Key Battles | Scorecard | Full Coverage)

Rajasthan Royals Squad: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson(w/c), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Sharma, Yuzvendra Chahal, Keshav Maharaj, Shubham Dubey, Navdeep Saini, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Kuldeep Sen, Nandre Burger, Tanush Kotian, Donovan Ferreira, Abid Mushtaq, Kunal Singh Rathore

Lucknow Super Giants Squad: Quinton de Kock, KL Rahul(w/c), Marcus Stoinis, Devdutt Padikkal, Nicholas Pooran, Deepak Hooda, Ayush Badoni, Krunal Pandya, Matt Henry, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohsin Khan, Yash Thakur, Arshin Kulkarni, Krishnappa Gowtham, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Manimaran Siddharth, Arshad Khan, Prerak Mankad, Amit Mishra, Kyle Mayers, Shamar Joseph, Ashton Turner, Naveen-ul-Haq, Mayank Yadav

It's cooling down as we get into the evening here in Lucknow. 66m and 73m square boundaries while the straight boundary is massive at 80m. It's an incredible lush outfield, the wicket is made up of black clay and it means it's not a friend of the spinners There are large chink of cracks, so there could be some movement for the pacers. There is a nice grass covering and the brown patches are well rolled as well. Expect more runs, 200+ runs have been scored by the team batting first, the average 1st innings score has gone up to 170+ this season and we can expect runs on this surface, say Matthew Hayden and Ian Bishop, in their pitch report.

RR skipper Sanju Samson has won the toss and opted to bowl first against LSG at the Ekana Stadium.

"We will bowl first. Looks like a decent wicket to bowl, but no guarantees. This season has been a bit different, some extra days in between games, that gives us time to rest and recover. We're playing the same team. IPL has been completely different, it's normal to get carried away looking at other teams, but the talk in our camp is to stay with the flow, we have been playing some good cricket and we need to continue doing so. I don't need to talk to him, he's been a top professional and has a big role in our plans (on Ravi Ashwin)."

The wicket is good, there's not much dew in Lucknow and the wicket will play well for the entire 40 overs. We'll need to play some good cricket. It's nice to get past 200, every team would like to do so, but the dimensions of this ground favours the bowlers a bit more and we've enjoyed it. No changes for us. Every player goes through a bit of time like that when you can't get runs ( asked about Padikkal's form). He looks good in the nets and he'll have to stay positive, you saw last night when Jonny came back after getting dropped and then getting a hundred.

Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson(w/c), Rovman Powell, Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Sharma, Yuzvendra Chahal

Lucknow Super Giants (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock, KL Rahul(w/c), Marcus Stoinis, Deepak Hooda, Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Krunal Pandya, Matt Henry, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohsin Khan, Yash Thakur

Lucknow Super Giants Impact Subs: Amit Mishra, Arshin Kulkarni, Krishnappa Gowtham, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Manimaran Siddharth

Rajasthan Royals Impact Subs: Riyan Parag, Shubham Dubey, Navdeep Saini, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Tanush Kotian

KL Rahul, QdK will look to start positively against an in-form RR pace attack.

LSG have not gotten to the best of starts with the dismissals of Quinton de Kock and Marcus Stoinis halting their positive charge. RR are right up on top in the game.

At the end of five overs, LSG are 36/2 with the dismissals of QdK and Marcus Stoinis by the RR bowlers. After winning the toss, RR captain Sanju Samson won the toss and opted to bowl.

4,000-plus IPL runs as an opener
6362 - Shikhar Dhawan
5909 - David Warner
4480 - Chris Gayle
4041 - Virat Kohli
4010 - KL Rahul

A fighting fifty from skipper KL Rahul and some decent contribution from Deepak Hooda has allowed the home team to fightback and stay in the contest after early dismissals.

Deepak Hooda fell for a well-made 50 runs but KL Rahul is still at the crease and is looking to carry his bat through for the home team against RR. Hooda was dismissed by R Ashwin but Nicholas Pooran has walked in for the LSG side and would look to go big in the final five overs.

A fifty from Deepak Hooda and a brilliant 76 from KL Rahul helped steer Lucknow Super Giants to 196 for the loss of five wickets against Rajasthan Royals in the IPL 2024 fixture at the Ekana Stadium. Sandeep Sharma was the pick of the bowlers for RR with 2/31 in four overs.

RR openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Jos Buttler have started strongly in pursuit of 197 with a 50-run opening stand.

Impact Sub Riyan Parag was the latest wicket to fall for the Rajasthan Royals as they chase down 197 in 20 overs against Lucknow Super Giants. Despite a defiant opening stand between Yashasvi Jaiswal and Jos Buttler, LSG have fought back into the contest.

Despite the three wickets, Sanju Samson and Dhruv Jurel have stitched a 50-plus run partnership for the fourth wicket to take RR's innings in control and take their side to yet another victory over LSG.

Sanju Samson again at the heart of it, RR have won yet another game and with such ease. Despite losing their openers, Samson and Dhruv Jurel stitched an unbeaten partnership to take the visitors home and consolidate their top spot in the IPL 2024 point table.

Reaction to follow!

I think we left about 20 runs behind. We didn’t get an ideal start but with the partnership me and Hooda had was great. In these sorts of games, the set batter had to score close to a hundred after getting to 50-60. I think we were 150 after about 15 overs, should have capitalized on it a bit more. I think it is clear the team with more sixes ends up winning. We do try to hit our sixes but today we had to change our approach after those two early wicket. If Hooda pushed on and scored 20 more, and I got 20 more then we’d finish around 220. That would have been the difference, that’s the 20 runs we left behind. We’re seeing with every game how important it is to give the bowlers that extra cushion because they are under the pump. Everyone loves range hitting and hitting it all over the park, we are no different. It is part of the prep. Our big hitters are Stoin and Pooran who can hit those big shots. The other guys like us try to pick our areas and time the shots better. (On Mishra and Bishnoi) There is a bit of chat before the game with the numbers and how opposition players match-up. Mishra is an experienced player and today was a day we knew he could be useful with how slow he bowls and with the larger boundaries. Once the runs kept flowing, they put pressure on our bowlers. There were 2-3 overs when Krunal bowled really well and squeezed them but then they attacked the fast bowlers. I couldn’t get a good time to get Bishnoi, wanted to keep him for the backend when Rovman and Hetmyer came out to bat because we know he can bowl well to them.

"I just wanted to finish the match whenever I got a chance ( during batting). It's always a blessing / curse (playing in the middle-order), I just wanted to stay until the end and finish the game for my team. I will have to practice, in the batting PP, you have just two fielders outside the ring, during the middle-overs, you'll need to find the gaps and get the big hits going as there are 5 fielders in thew deep, that's what I was looking at. I started well, but my shots went straight to the fielders. Sanju then told me to calm down, don't go too hard, take my time and then I got 20 runs in an over and that got me going. I always play for my papa, I did so during the Test match as well. he was then in the army, he was there today and that was for him (on the salute celebrations)."

I am very lucky to be behind the wickets. There was some purchase with the new ball and then was a good wicket to bat on. The guys who came in and bowl one over in the power-play do an important job. There has been a lot of planning behind the scenes. The start and the end of the innings was good. We gave away a few in the middle overs. Form is temporary in this format. We have seen Jurel in Tests. We believe in him. He has been batting one hour and two hours at times in the nets. We have been doing really well. We have been a little lucky as well. We need to keep the process right. At the team meetings, we talk about ticking the processes. One game at a time for us.

Sanju Samson's RR consolidate top spot in the IPL 2024 points table whereas LSG miss out on staking the second spot. Another double-header coming our way, till then, good night!