Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) skipper Sanju Samson won the toss and elected to bat first against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur. RR showed faith in the opening combination of Jos Buttler & Yashasvi Jaiswal. In the recent past, the swashbuckling right handed batter Jos Buttler though hasn’t been able to dictate the terms.
LSG surprised everyone by naming Quinton de Kock as their specialist wicket-keeper batter instead of the dangerous right handed batter Kyle Mayers as he is someone who has got brute power. All eyes though will be on Nicholas Pooran who is in the form of his life and can play the role of floater for the side.
Jos Buttler dismissed cheaply by Naveen-ul-Haq
LSG’s lethal left arm speedster Mohsin Khan bowled an impeccable first over and it seemed as if he bowled to a particular gameplan. Naveen-ul-Haq was bowling the 2nd over and Jos Buttler was quite fearless in his approach. On the 5th delivery of the over, Buttler smashed a boundary towards deep midwicket and on the last delivery of the ball, Naveen bowled a full length delivery wide off-stump and enticed Buttler to play a drive short but got a massive edge and the wicket-keeper batter KL Rahul took a low diving catch to his left side. Buttler was dismissed for 11 runs in 9 balls and struck 2 fours. RR’s score at the end of 2 overs was 13-1.
Key phase coming up for RR
Yashasvi Jaiswal would be worried with the dismissal of Buttler as now he along with Sanju Samson will have to be smart with their shot selections. Sanju Samson will have to lead from the front and make sure that Yashasvi Jaiswal can play his intrepid brand of cricket rather than getting into the shell.
LSG fans would be pumped up to see the back of Jos Buttler as Buttler is someone who can decimate the opposition on the given day. Skipper KL Rahul can’t just go overboard as RR bat quite deep and they are quite invincible at their home ground. If RR get around 60 runs in the powerplay overs then they would be quite unstoppable.