Archer cleans up Mohsin's middle stump and ends the match. Comprehensive win here for RR, an absolute masterclass in defending a total. They made almost no mistake with the ball or on the field. LSG are down to a fourth straight defeat. They just can't figure out how to bat. Quite a peculiar situation this. The captain cannot blame any of the younger players in his team because they are the ones doing well. The senior guys are the batters, including Pant himself, and they just can't seem to be able to buy a run. Today, there was some utterly astonishingly poor shot selection from them, especially when a) they've already bowled on this surface and so they know how tricky it is to bat on it and b) they only had to chase 160, not 260. Pant, Markram, Pooran, all could've taken their time and even tried hitting along the ground more often than not to find the boundaries. Pooran waited, Pant and Markram just swung as soon as they were out there. Rank poor batting from the senior players and LSG continue to sink because of it.
LSG vs RR IPL 2026 Highlights: (BCCI/Creimas Photo)LSG vs RR IPL 2026 Highlights: Ravindra Jadeja cobbling together an unbeaten 43 in 29 balls towards the end of Rajasthan Royals’ innings ended up being a match-winning effort as they beat the Lucknow Super Giants by 40 runs. Jadeja’s late efforts took RR to a score of 159/6. In response, LSG’s top order batters surrendered meekly. Ayush Badoni was sold short by his opening partner Mitchell Marsh and was run out for a duck. Rishabh Pant swung almost blindly at three balls, falling for a duck off the third. Aiden Markram also went for a big shot early on and fell for a duck. Nicholas Pooran and Marsh tried to build something but the former simply couldn’t shake off his poor form. Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger and Brijesh Sharma led the way in demolishing the LSG lineup while Jadeja struck with the big scalp of Pooran.
Lucknow Super Giants
119 (18.0)Rajasthan Royals
159/6 (20.0)Rajasthan Royals beat Lucknow Super Giants by 40 runs
SCROLL DOWN TO FOLLOW IPL 2026 LSG VS RR HIGHLIGHTS
Mayank pushes at the third ball of the 18th by Archer, gets a thick edge that flies to Jurel's right. He dives that way and takes the catch with the ball almost behind him.
Mayank Yadav c Jurel b Archer 5 (5)
Brijesh strikes, Parag with the catch once again and that is the match, folks. Brijesh's first ball in the 17th over is sent in at a length outside off, Mukul tries to flat bat it, takes the top edge and the ball pops to Parag.
Mukul Choudhary c Parag b Brijesh Sharma 7 (3)
LSG 111/7 in 16.1 overs
Wicket No.2 for Burger and well, this match is looking like a foregone conclusion now. Marsh swung, mishit and it goes very high up in the air. Parag runs back from extra cover and takes a sharp catch.
And just to show how think LSG's batting is outside that non-performing star-studded top order, the man who walks out at No.8 is Mohammed Shami.
Marsh c Parag b Burger 55 (41)
LSG 105/6 in 15.3 overs
Well, Bishnoi does that writing off gesture that Himmat's LSG and Delhi teammate Digvesh Rathi is notorious for doing. Wonder what that was all about. Himmat looks to smash the third ball of the 15th across the line. Misses it entirely and his stumps are gone.
Himmat Singh b Ravi Bishnoi 15 (15)
LSG 91/5 in 14.3 overs
Marsh is on 34 off 27 balls, Himmat Singh at the other end on two off four. Himmat has been around for a while in domestic cricket, playing for Delhi since 2017.
LSG need 98 to win from 54 balls, their run rate is 5.63 while their required rate is 10.88.
The first time that he has gone for a big expanse swing of the bat really and Pooran falls. It was a length ball from around the wicket which lands around off. Pooran goes for a swipe, doesn't quite connect it the way he wanted to. Sends it straight down the throat of long on. Jadeja tells POoran that he has got him in his pocket.
Pooran c Ferreira b Jadeja 22 (25)
LSG 54/4 in 9.4 overs
Two fours, has Pooran found his groove? Brijesh Sharma bowls the seventh over. His fourth ball is a slow bouncer that Pooran crashes behind square for four. The last ball is full outside off, Pooran drives it beautifully through extra cover for four.
Pooran on 14 off 14, Marsh on 24 off 18.
LSG 40/3 in 7 overs
Well, if RR looked to be in trouble during their powerplay, take a load of this! Nandre Burger bowls the sixth over, his fourth ball is quick and on length. Not short at all but Marsh pulls it off his hips with ease over square leg for a six. Single to finish the over off.
He is on 23 off 16, Pooran on six off 10.
Well, it's pretty clear now that this is not the easiest pitch to bat on, which makes the shot selection of Pant and Markram even more puzzling. Archer beat Pooran a couple of times and so the latter quite lucky to still be out there at the end of the over. He is on five off eight, Marsh on 15 off 12.
LSG 22/3 in 5 overs
Archer gets a wicket now. Three overs, three wickets thus far in this innings. Markram goes for a duck as well. Archer dug in a 147kph snorter back of a length. It rose at pace and hurried Markram into the pull. Top edge and the ball goes very high up. Swirling in the lights as well. Wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel settles under it, takes off his cap and completes the catch. Very good work there.
Markram c Jurel b Archer 0 (6)
LSG 11/3 in 2.5 overs
Nandre Burger in the second over, Marsh gets off strike first ball. Pant danced down the track and swung at the first ball he faced. He missed. He danced down the track and swung second ball. He missed. He gets down on his knee and almost tries to sweep a length delivery third ball. He doesn't miss. Not entirely at least. Gets an edge and through to the keeper. Not much for tactics or thinking, the LSG captain. Go big or go bust. In T20s, it has mostly been the latter for him. For LSG, it has rarely been the former for him. Astonishingly poor from someone who plays cricket for a living. Can't be using "this is the way I play" as an excuse for blind batting.
Pant c Jurel b Burger 0 (3)
LSG 10/2 in 1.4 overs
Ayush Badoni is done here. Terrible running by the two batters, Badoni is far away from the crease when the ball approaches the stumps, his bat seems to get stuck into the pitch a bit as well as he starts dragging it. He is as gone as they come and the third umpire confirms it. Badoni tapped and ran, Marsh had backed away so much he was almost halfway through the pitch but then he raises his arm while hovering in the middle asking "Why?" before running back himself. Badoni was going full tilt, had to apply the breaks and turn back. Substitute fielder Ravi Singh runs in and under arms the ball to the striker's end.
Badoni c sub (Ravi Singh) b Archer 0 (1)
LSG 9/1 in 1 over
All right, LSG are sticking with Ayush Badoni at the top of the order. Mitchell Marsh is on strike, Jofra Archer to start the RR attack. LSG need 160 to win.
Jadeja manages to salvage something in that last over by smashing Mayank Yadav for 20 runs. The young pacer has had a somewhat forgettable return here, finishes with figures of 0/56 in four overs. Jadeja finishes unbeaten on 43 off 29, Shubham Dubey at the other end on 19 off 11.
Now this is a tricky target to chase but you would back most batting lineups to see themselves as being on top regardless of the conditions when they need to chase 160 nowadays. Not so for LSG though, largely because of that non-performing superstar-laden top order. If any of them fire, though, a big win is in store for LSG.
Now LSG had two reviews yet and so this might be a case of them just using one because of that and even then, this has to be one of the worst reviews ever taken. Fifth ball of the 19th by Prince, perfect yorker on leg as Jadeja started making room. Ball goes to Pant's right, he had hurt his nose earlier and he seems to have hurt it again diving for it. However, Pant gets up and actually reviews this! Jadeja had moved way outside leg, Prince had followed him and hit his pads. Ball tracking shows that the ball would've missed the stumps, which is exactly what a bat that uses only SONAR to see things would've said as well. Dubey finished that over with a four between backward point and short third.
Pulled, straight down the throat of the man at deep third. Slower bouncer, Ferreira tries to back away and pull it behind for a six. But the delivery had no pace on it and so he ends up giving Mohsin Khan catching practice at the boundary.
Well Shami would've had had a third wicket had it not been for Mayank Yadav's misjudgement. Shami banged in the first ball of the 13th over short on off stump, Ferreira pulled. If Mayank was not so far in at deep backward square, the shorter boundary, it would've been an easy catch. Instead it went over his head, he tried to get to it by jumping up and backwards with an outstretched hand. Two runs after that in that over and then six runs off Rathi in the next.
The stifle continues. Hetmyer had smacked 14 runs off Mayank in the 10th over which is why their run rate has dipped back below seven only now. Ravindra Jadeja is on three off four, Donovan Ferreira on four off seven. These two had somewhat saved the blushes for RR earlier, although that had not translated to victory. Digvesh Rathi back for the 12th over and he gave just two runs in it.
Mohsin Khan with another huge victory. Back of a length on off stump, it angles into Hetmyer who is absolutely unsure about what to do. Makes a hopeful prod leg side, takes a leading edge and Prince takes the catch at mid off.
Hetmyer c Prince Yadav b Mohsin Khan 22 (18)
RR 77/5 in 10.2 overs
Well that was not the kind of delivery you get wickets from, its the kind that get whacked out of the ground. But Parag has hit it straight down the throat of long. Full length delivery around middle and off, Parag went for a Dhoni-side helicopter hit leg side but doesn't get even a quarter of the power on it that the former India captain used to in his prime. Pooran takes it. Prince Yadav strikes.
Parag c Pooran b Prince Yadav 20 (19)
RR 62/4 in 9 overs
And he maintains good piece throughout that seventh over. Starts out with a 141kph half-volley to Hetmyer, who sends it through cover and runs two. Then Mayank goes wide down leg side, 143kph. The next ball is speared in full outside off 147kph, Hetmyer misses his prod. Third ball is a 144kph bouncer, Hetmyer pulls along the ground for a single. Parag then tries an upper cut, the 136kph delivery came into him and hit him on the shoulder. Then he takes the pace off, 110kph full delivery that Parag digs out. The last ball was a 137kph half volley on the pads. A hit-me delivery and hit he did, Parag flicks it away over long leg for a six.
RR 54/3 in 7 overs
Shimron Hetmyer now in the middle with Riyan Parag. Both players haven't had the greatest of seasons with the bat, especially compared to their standards. And them getting time in the middle and finding their groove would be nightmare scenario for LSG. For now though, LSG are absolutely on top.
Hetmyer on two off three, Parag on nine off nine
Mohsin gets the big wicket, Rathi does well to track and back and take the catch coming over his shoulder, and then he goes and does an Imran Tahir! LSG flying early here! Mohsin ends the fourth over with short one, Sooryavanshi tries to go pull it, his first attempt at a big shot today really. Takes the edge and goes high into the sky. Rathi runs back towards the boundary, ball comes down over his shoulder and he does well to hold on.
Even more incredibly, that is a wicket maiden. Sooryavanshi was pinned to the crease throughout that over.
Sooryavanshi c Rathi b Mohsin Khan 8 (11)
RR 32/3 in 4 overs
Well that is a Test wicket. Gets it to angle in on Dhruv Jurel's leg but it swerves away late. Jurel ends up getting an outside edge and Pant does the rest. Shami on a hat-trick when he returns next time, surely, that has to be the fifth over.
Jurel c Pant b Mohammed Shami 0 (1)
RR 32/2 in 3 overs
How about it. Jaiswal with three back-to-back fours off the second, third and fourth balls of the fourth over. Then Shami smashes one in at 141kph, Jaiswal swivelled but the ball went a little higher than he expected it seems. Takes a feather edge and Pant rises high to take the catch.
Jaiswal c Pant b Mohammed Shami 22 (12)
RR 32/1 in 2.5 overs
Prince ends it well with three dot balls to Sooryavanshi, not something bowlers have been able to do too often this season. But 13 runs came off the first three balls there.
Just a run off the first three balls, which came from Shami bowling the third ball wide outside off. Then Shami goes for a length ball on the pads, Jaiswal glances it off his pads for four through deep fine leg. A single to to end the over, and so Jaiswal will remain on strike for the second over, which will be bowled by Prince Yadav.
All right then, Mayank Yadav is back for LSG but for now, it is Mohammed Shami to start the bowling. Yashasvi Jaiswal on strike, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi at the other end. Early action in store with these two around, one way or another.
Rishabh Pant: We're looking to bowl first, you know. We have been playing in this condition. Still figuring what's best but, the way our team is, we want to put our opposition under pressure when they bat first. (On the conditions in Lucknow) When you look at last few matches, it's been challenging, but at the same time, as a team, we love that challenge. We're going to figure out a way, how we play on our home soil and not looking as a disadvantage. As a player, you're going to find the way. (Rejig after losing three matches?) I think mostly a little bit changes, just a subtle change because you don't want massive change because you want to still keep the stability in the team. Just two changes from bowling side, Rathi comes in for us in place of Sid and Mayank comes in for Avesh. (On Pooran) It's a bit challenging, but at the same time, a player who has shown so much potential in the top stage, you want to trust him regardless of whatever he's doing. When you talk about him, he's really important for our team. And that was the love and care is all about towards Nicholas Pooran.
Riyan Parag: I actually told my boys I was going to try and lose the toss because I was very confused. And I did that pretty well. So I'm happy with either bowling or batting. I feel batting first, we played a few domestic games here and it slowed down a little on the later half. So hopefully we get a start back. I think we batted pretty well. Even last game against Kolkata, I think we made a few miscalculations in the middle overs. But I feel the way Jaiswal and Vaibhav batted with the wickets that they had, I think that was brilliant. Like I said, a few errors here and there. The message is that we need to play 40 overs of good cricket. Only then can we expect a win. Hopefully do that tonight. Same team.
Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel(w), Riyan Parag(c), Shimron Hetmyer, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Ravi Bishnoi, Brijesh Sharma, Nandre Burger
Lucknow Super Giants: Mitchell Marsh, Ayush Badoni, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Nicholas Pooran, Aiden Markram, Mukul Choudhary, Mohammed Shami, Mohsin Khan, Prince Yadav, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Mayank Yadav
Rishabh Pant has won the toss and LSG are bowling first.
Rishabh Pant and Riyan Parag are chatting away in the middle at the Ekana Stadium. Darren Ganga will be conducting it today.
So how has the wonder teen fared in these two defeats for RR you ask? Well the first of those was a 57-run loss against SRH and Sooryavanshi fell for a shiny golden duck to Sakib Hussain. They then lost to KKR by four wickets and Sooryavanshi had scored 46 in 28 balls. A strike rate of 164.28, which is slow by his standards.
It doesn't matter which way you look at it, the writing is on the wall, Nicholas Pooran is on his way to having arguably his worst IPL season thus far, unless he can turn it around dramatically in the remaining matches. He has a career strike rate of 164.95 and average of 32.10 in 93 innings in the IPL. This season, he has scored 51 runs in eight innings at a strike rate of just under 80.
RR raced away to four consecutive wins in their opening games. But now, they find themselves on slightly shaky ground after two back to back defeats to struggling teams. Last season, they won eight of their first nine matches before losing all of their remaining matches in the league stage. They qualified for the playoffs anyhow but lost in Q2. In 2023, they won four of their first five games and then lost their way entirely. So much that they didn't even qualify for the playoffs.
On a night when Sunrisers Hyderabad had the opportunity to get out of the middle muddle, Abhishek Sharma, who is affectionately called Puli (tiger) by Hyderabad fans, pounced upon the Delhi Capitals bowlers to smack 135 runs from just 68 deliveries. That knock was a sight to see and for a while, it looked like he might be set to surpass Chris Gayle's record 175. He already equalled Virat Kohli as the Indian with most centuries in men's T20 cricket. READ MORE.
Riyan Parag has been quite impressive this season as captain, particularly in the couple of close wins RR pulled off early on. However, his batting has been a source of worry. Parag has scored just 61 runs thus far in six innings at a strike rate of 126.98. His highest score thus far has been just 20.
Prince Yadav's father's inhibitions before his son joined the LSG camp, after the thrill of having acquired an IPL contract, was quite legitimate. This was a team chock-a-block with pacers who have played for India. “Mayank Yadav ek Indian player hai. Avesh Khan Indian player hai. Mohsin Khan, woh bhi India khel sakta hai. Sachin Tendulkar ka ladka Arjun bhi hai. Tera number kaise padega?”
Lalith Kalidas has more for you on where LSG's newest pace sensation has come from. And it is quite an incredible story. READ HERE.
Among the many things that refuse to stop following LSG is rumours about the nature of the relationship between their owner Sanjeev Goenka and their captain. It was KL Rahul earlier, it is Rishabh Pant now. Now while Goenka and Rahul haven't really done much to play down reports of them not seeing eye to eye, the latter has laughed off any such rumours with Pant. READ MORE.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel(w), Riyan Parag(c), Shimron Hetmyer, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Brijesh Sharma, Ravi Bishnoi, Sandeep Sharma, Shubham Dubey, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Ravi Singh, Yash Raj Punja, Adam Milne, Dasun Shanaka, Tushar Deshpande, Kuldeep Sen, Sushant Mishra, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Kwena Maphaka, Vignesh Puthur, Aman Rao Perala
Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Mukul Choudhary, Mohammed Shami, Avesh Khan, Prince Yadav, Manimaran Siddharth, Mohsin Khan, Abdul Samad, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Matthew Breetzke, Mayank Yadav, Himmat Singh, George Linde, Josh Inglis, Anrich Nortje, Arjun Tendulkar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Akash Maharaj Singh, Akshat Raghuwanshi, Arshin Kulkarni, Naman Tiwari
Matches: 6
LSG won: 2
RR won: 4
Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer/Dasun Shanaka, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Ravi Bishnoi, Brijesh Sharma, Nandre Burger, Yash Raj Punja
Lucknow Super Giants: Ayush Badoni, Mitchell Marsh, Rishabh Pant, Nicholas Pooran, Aiden Markram, Mukul Choudhary, Himmat Singh, Mohammed Shami, Avesh Khan, Prince Yadav, M Siddharth, Mohsin Khan/Mayank Yadav
Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of the Indian Premier League 2026, where in Match No. 32, a struggling Lucknow Super Giants are up against Rajasthan Royals at Ekana on Wednesday.
Both teams are coming into the contest with losses. LSG have lost their last three games while RR have lost their last two games.
Stay tuned as we bring you all the live updates.
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