Lucknow Super Giants lived up to their reputation of successfully defending totals in the Indian Premier League as they beat Rajasthan Royals by 10 runs on Wednesday.
Lucknow fast bowlers Avesh Khan (3-25) and Marcus Stoinis (2-28) picked up five wickets between them in what appeared to be an easy chase for Rajasthan in their homecoming game before they got strangled at 144-6.
Earlier, West Indian opening batter Kyle Mayers continued his dream run in the IPL with his third half-century as he made 51 off 42 balls on a tricky wicket as Lucknow scored 154-7 after losing the toss.
Both teams are now at the top of the table with eight points from six games but Rajasthan holds the No. 1 spot on super net run-rate.
Rajasthan seemed to have the game in the bag after Yashasvi Jaiswal (44) and Jos Buttler (40) laid a solid platform of 87 off 69 balls.
But Avesh brought Lucknow back in the 12th over when he swooped a low catch at short third man to dismiss Jaiswal, and captain Sanju Samson was run out in a mix-up with Buttler.
With the old ball not coming onto the bat in the latter half of the innings, Buttler holed out at deep mid-wicket as Rajasthan lost three quick wickets in space of three overs and slumped to 97-3.
"That Samson run-out and two wickets falling back-to-back lets you to come back into the game," Lucknow skipper Lokesh Rahul said. "(Their) top three-four are really strong and our plan was to get them out early, and it came via a run-out today."
Impact player Devdutt Padikkal (26) and Riyan Prag (15 not out) tried to accelerate in the death overs before Avesh had Padikkal caught behind in the final over and then Deepak Hooda sealed the game by taking a splendid catch on the edge of the long-on boundary to dismiss Dhruv Jurel on the next ball.
Mayers and Rahul, who made 39, earlier saw off the pace of Trent Boult (1-16) in the powerplay and shared 82-run opening stand before Rajasthan also pegged back Lucknow's batters in the second half of their innings.
Rahul was neatly caught by Buttler while Mayers was beaten by Ravichandran Ashwin's (2-23) length delivery and was clean bowled in the 14th over.
Nicholas Pooran (29) and Stoinis (21) then lifted the total with their cameos before both got dismissed in the final over that saw Lucknow losing the last three wickets for five runs.
"They bowled well, used the conditions well but I still believe it was a chaseable score," Samson said. "We need to play smart cricket and we were going really well till about over 9-10 -- and when we tried to go hard, we lost wickets."
Lucknow next hosts Gujarat Titans on Saturday, while Rajasthan will meet Royal Challengers Bangalore on Sunday.
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