JAIPUR, India, CMC – Kyle Mayers lashed his third half-century of the Indian Premier League season while West Indies teammate Shimron Hetmyer failed, as Lucknow Super Giants held their nerve to beat leaders Rajasthan Royals by ten runs here Wednesday.
The left-hander Mayers struck 51 to follow up his 73 and 53 in his first outings of the campaign, helping to lift Super Giants to 154 for seven off their 20 overs.
His opening partner and captain KL Rahul struck 39 from 32 deliveries, while West Indies teammate and former international skipper Nicholas Pooran chipped in with 29 off 20 balls.
In reply, the Royals got a top score of 44 from Yashasvi Jaiswal and 40 from England’s Jos Buttler, the pair putting on 87 for the first wicket.
But once the stand was broken, the run chase lost its way, and after that, only Devdutt Padikkal, with 26 from 21 balls, showed any enterprise, and the 19 runs required from the final over proved beyond them.
The victory moved the Super Giants level on eight points alongside the Royals but second in the standings based on an inferior net run rate.
Sent in at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Mayers provided a lively start for Super Giants when he inspired an 82-run stand with Rahul for the first wicket.
Mayers counted four fours and three sixes in a 42-ball knock, while Rahul struck four fours and a six before perishing in the 11th over, caught at long-on off West Indies seamer Jason Holder who finished with one for 38 from his four overs.
The 30-year-old Mayers was the last of four wickets to tumble in a slide that came in the space of 20 balls and, with 22 runs added, bowled by off-spinner Ravi Ashwin in the 14th over at 104 for four.
Pooran then arrived to revive the momentum, belting two fours and a six in a 45-run fifth-wicket stand with Marcus Stonis (21).
Royals looked in complete command when Buttler, who struck four fours and a six in a 41-ball knock, and Jaiswal, who punched four fours and two sixes off 35 balls, dominated the early part of the chase.
The turning point came when Jaiswal perished in the 12th over, triggering a slide that saw four wickets go down for 17 runs, the left-handed Hetmyer fourth out for two, miscuing the fifth ball he faced to long on at the start of the 16th over from seamer Avesh Khan (3-25).
Padikkal struck four fours in a 21-ball cameo, attempting to salvage the chase in a 37-run, fifth-wicket partnership with Riyan Parag (15 not out), but two wickets in the final over thwarted Royals’ hopes.
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