Avesh Khan helped Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) eke out a narrow win against Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium on Saturday, April 19. He defended nine runs off the final over as the Royals fell short by just two runs in the end.
It was the second straight defeat for the Royals at home, while their fourth straight defeat in the campaign. LSG, on the other hand, came back to winning ways after losing to CSK in their previous game.
Chasing 181 runs to win, RR got off to a brilliant start from Yashasvi Jaiswal (74 runs off 52 balls) and the youngest IPL debutant, Vaibhav Suryavanshi (34 runs off 20 balls). The duo shared a stand of 85 runs for the first wicket. Young Vaibhav kicked off his IPL career with a six off the very first ball he faced. Jaiswal and Vaibhav's stand took the Royals to a position of strength in the chase.
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Watch: Vaibhav Suryavanshi's First Ball Six On IPL Debut
The partnership was finally broken by Aiden Markram (18 runs off 2 overs) as he got the youngster stumped. Vaibhav was his only wicket in the match. After Nitish Rana was dismissed for just 8 runs off 7 balls, RR stand-in skipper Riyan Parag (39 runs off 26 balls) added another 62-run stand with Jaiswal.
As the partnership was looking threatening, Avesh Khan (3 wickets for 37 runs) dismissed both of them in the 18th over. That over from Avesh changed the game and swung back the momentum in Lucknow's favour.
It was Avesh Khan who was given the task of defending nine runs off the final over. Shimron Hetmyer (12 runs off 7 balls) and Dhruv Jurel (6* runs off 5 balls) after failing to score exactly nine against DC in the previous game had to score 9 to win this match as well.
Watch: Avesh Khan Defend 9 Off The Final Over As LSG Win By 2 Runs
However, it was a brilliant over from Avesh. He gave away just one off his first ball to Jurel. Hetmyer then scored a double in his next ball. In the third delivery of the over, Hetmyer hit one straight to Shardul Thakur at backward square leg who managed to hold onto the catch.
Coming in as the Impact Sub, Shubham Dubey was dropped in the fifth delivery off the over by David Miller. With 4 to win off the final ball, Avesh bowled a perfect yorker and all Dubey could manage was just one run as the Royals lost the game. RR have now lost back to back games where they could not score nine runs off the final over.
Avesh Khan bowled a stand-out spell of three overs for 37 runs and picked up three wickets. He was also named the Player Of The Match for his heroics with the ball. LSG, who were on their way to lose the game at the halfway mark, managed to somehow win the game from nowhere. It was Avesh's 18th over that turned the game in LSG's favour.
After this narrow win, LSG have become the fourth team to get to 10 points on the IPL 2025 points table. They have edged out RCB to climb upto the fourth position on the table. Earlier in the day, GT beat DC to get to 10 points as well. As of now, GT, DC, PBKS and LSG are the four teams with 10 points each, with every team having played atleast seven games each.
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