Shimron Hetmyer lived up to his Rs 8.5 crore price tag with a six-hitting exhibition before Yuzvendra Chahal and Trent Bout displayed their wizardry with the ball as Rajasthan Royals outwitted Lucknow Super Kings by three runs in an IPL game here on Sunday.
Invited to bat, star West Indies batter Hetmyer smashed an unbeaten 36-ball 59 to lift RR from 67 for four to 165 for six in 20 overs. Trent Boult (2/30) then struck twice in a sensational opening over, while Chahal (4/41) picked up four wickets to achieve the feat of claiming 150 IPL victims but Marcus Stoinis blasted two fours and four maximums in his unbeaten 38 off 17 balls to conjure up hopes of a turnaround.
But Kuldeep Sen, making his IPL debut, showed great nerves as he defended 15 runs in the last over as RR limited LSG to 162 for eight.
With this win, RR bounced back from their four wicket loss to RCB in the last match to take the top position in the IPL standings, while LSG slipped to fifth spot.
Defending the total, Boult produced a ripping late inswinging yorker to dismiss KL Rahul for a first-ball duck, before trapping Krishnappa Gowtham plumb in front in the opening over as LSG slipped to 1 for 2.
Prasidh Krishna then got rid of Jason Holder with a back of a length delivery which took a top-edge and balloned to Ravichandran Ashwin at mid-on. Madhya Pradesh pacer Sen made an impressive IPL debut as he disturbed the woods of Deepak Hooda to leave LSG at 52 for four.
