As it happened - Rajasthan Royals vs Lucknow Super Giants, IPL 2022

What a superb final over. Kuldeep Sen has pace, but he's also thrown in a 101kph slower ball to mix things up. He's not gone with yorkers to Stoinis, but generally tried to bowl that wide-ish line outside off and make the batter reach for the ball and lose his shape in the process. Stoinis tried going down the ground, he tried slapping through the off side, he tried walking across to hit it past short fine leg, but he couldn't quite find the answers.

It comes down to an all-but-impossible 14 off two balls, and Stoinis finishes with an edged four over short third and a whipped six over midwicket, off the only ball of that over that was genuinely in his hitting arc.

Marcus Stoinis is keeping LSG in this. I don't know if it's dew, but two of Prasidh Krishna's attempted yorkers end up as full-tosses, and Stoinis hits both majestically for straight sixes. There's also a clever shuffle across his stumps to tickle a four past short fine leg.

LSG need 15 off the last over, with Avesh Khan on strike.

Chahal's final over is hugely eventful - a six from Stoinis, two wides when he's looking to bowl outside off stump and away from Dushmantha Chameera's reach - the second one hotly contested by bowler and keeper - and then a quick, full ball that Chameera plays all around to be lbw. Not given on the field, with the umpire possibly thinking there may have been an inside-edge, and then Royals review and Chahal gets his fourth wicket.

Then Avesh Khan comes in and slogs his first ball for six. It leaves LSG 132 for 8, needing 34 to win off the last two overs. Wow.

Prasidh to bowl the 19th, so it'll have to be the debutant Kuldeep Sen to bowl the 20th, with everyone else having bowled their four-over allocations.

He's taken out both left-handers in the same over. Again, the result of the batter having to do something to try and manufacture a boundary. Krunal shuffles across his stumps to try and sweep behind square. Unfortunately for him, he chooses the wrong ball: it's a quick legbreak, it's on the stumps, and he's bowled behind his legs.

The thing about Yuzvendra Chahal is that he's experienced every situation in T20 cricket and come through it. He's bowled on flat pitches, in the smallest grounds, with a wet ball, against unfavourable match-ups - he's seen it all.

He bowls a superb 16th over, slanting everything across the left-handers from over the wicket, angling it away from their hitting arc, and bowling largely flat and quick. With the required rate being what it is, de Kock is forced to go hard at the third ball of the over, and he doesn't get hold of it at all, hitting it straight to the fielder at long-on.

LSG are 101 for 6. They need 65 off the last 27 balls.

With Krunal joining de Kock, LSG have a left-left pair at the crease. Not ideal, usually, but in this instance it might be a pretty smart move. Ashwin had one over remaining when Krunal walked in, and he immediately bowled it. The legspinner Chahal, however, has two overs to go, and he isn't someone in the mould of Ravi Bishnoi, who likes bowling to left-handers and uses the googly liberally.

At the end of the 14th over, Royals have those two overs of Chahal left, plus two from Prasidh Krishna, and one each from Boult and Kuldeep Sen. Royals haven't used a sixth bowler yet.

Prasidh comes on for the 15th, but if these two batters get through it, Royals may have to bring Chahal on.

Update: Ten off that Prasidh over, with Krunal hitting two fours. LSG need 69 off the last 30 balls. And here's Chahal to bowl the 16th.

After his useful hand with the bat today (and possibly coming up with the idea to retire himself out, who knows), Ashwin completes an excellent, tidy four overs with the ball. With 42 balls remaining, LSG need 86 runs with five wickets in hand.

Ayush Badoni is the fifth LSG batter out. Steps out to Yuzvendra Chahal, who sees him coming and bowls a trademark slow legbreak wide of off stump, making him reach for the ball. Goes through with the attacking shot, and hits it straight to the man at long-off.

LSG are 74 for 5. They need 92 off 48 now. Quinton de Kock is still there, batting on 34 off 25. Krunal Pandya comes in at No. 7, and there's also Marcus Stoinis to follow. They're still in it, just. The promotions of Gowtham and Holder have left two other big hitters in reserve.

Kuldeep Yadav took four wickets in the first game of the day, and now the fast bowler Kuldeep Sen, making his debut for Royals, has taken his first IPL wicket.

Having put on 39 with Quinton de Kock, Deepak Hooda slogs across the line off the first ball of the tenth over, and misses. Kuldeep hits his leg stump, and LSG are 52 for 4. They now need 114 off 65 balls.

You'll be interested to know what the deal was with Sunzamul Islam retiring out for 0 off 0 balls. Well, he was Cumilla Warriors' No. 9 in a tight chase against Chattogram Challengers during a BPL match in December 2019. Sunzamul was going to be on strike for the last ball with Cumilla needing three to win. They believed at that point that Mujeeb Ur Rahman was likelier to win them the match in that situation, so they called Sunzamul back in, and whaddaya know, Mujeeb came in and hit a last-ball four!

Clarification: It seems Sunzamul walked in mistakenly at the fall of the seventh wicket, when Cumilla actually wanted to send in Mujeeb, and they had to call Sunzamul back in.

In case you were wondering if Boult has bowled the first ball of an innings from around the wicket in the past, it turns out he has. Gaurav does some more digging, and informs us that he's done it once before in the IPL, back in 2018. The batter on strike on that occasion? KL Rahul.

Prasidh Krishna hits the deck hard, and cramps Holder for room on the pull. Hits the high part of the bat and balloons high in the air before Ashwin settles under the catch at mid-on.

LSG are 14 for 3 in 3.3 overs.

On that note, here's another nice stat from Gaurav Sundararaman:

KL Rahul is the third batter to be dismissed off the first ball of an innings twice in one IPL season. He was also out first ball to Mohammed Shami in LSG's first match against Gujarat Titans. The other two batters are Sanath Jayasuriya in 2009, and Unmukt Chand in 2013.

Two members of our stats team share their thoughts on Shimron Hetmyer and his innings today.

Gaurav Sundararaman: "Shimron Hetmyer is one of the most improved cricketers in the T20 format. No wonder there was a big demand for him early on in the auction when he was sold for INR 8.5 crore. Since the start of 2020, in the last four overs only Kieron Pollard has a marginally better strike rate than Hetmyer. Pollard strikes at 213.95 while Hetmeyer strikes at 213.39. Along with Russell they are the only three to have a strike rate above 200 in this period. Finishing an innings in T20 is a very hard role as detailed by Matt Roller in this piece for The Cricket Monthly. Hetmyer has steadily improved his finishing abilities in the IPL. In 2020 he struck at 189.47, in 2021 he lifted it to 198.5 and this season he is striking at 262. Is Hetmyer slowly nailing this role like his colleagues from West Indies have? For now he is bossing this role in the IPL."

S Rajesh: "Shimron Hetmyer had scrapped to a run-a-ball 14 when, off the second ball of the 14th over, Krunal Pandya dropped a regulation chance at long-on. Hetmyer made good use of that life, going on to score an unbeaten 59 off 36.

"Had that chance been taken, Rajasthan Royals would have ended up with a total of 145, which is 20 runs fewer than they eventually managed. That is according to ESPNcricinfo’s Luck Index, which calculates the runs that the remaining batters would have scored off the extra deliveries that the batter got after he was dropped.

"In this case, Hetmyer scored 45 off 21 balls after he was dropped. Had the chance been taken, the other Royals batters would only have scored 25 off those deliveries according to the Luck Index algorithm."

Oh, and here's a non-Hetmyer-related observation from another member of our stats team, Sampath Bandarupalli:

"Two wickets on first two legitimate balls of an IPL innings: Praveen Kumar vs CSK, Mohali 2011, Umesh Yadav vs MI, Wankhede 2018, Trent Boult vs LSG, Wankhede 2022."

The second ball of the Boult over swings down the leg side, and he decides to switch to left-arm over. From there, he produces the perfect delivery, starting to angle across the right-hander, then bending back and pinging the front pad, which is thrust too far across. It's plumb, and the batter doesn't review.

K Gowtham, sent in as a pinch-hitter at No. 3, goes for a duck as well. LSG are 1 for 2.

And they've made another interesting promotion. Jason Holder is in at No. 4.

KL Rahul b Boult 0 (1).

Trent Boult strikes with the first ball of the LSG innings. Starts from left-arm around, which is quite unusual for him, but gets the full ball to swerve back in just as dramatically as he would from over the wicket. Rahul plays all around it, and his stumps end up in a splattered heap.

That tactical move to take Ashwin off the field once he had done his job bumped up the projected score from 152 to 159, but Shimron Hetmyer's hitting has ensured they end up with 165. He scored 28 runs off the last 11 balls he faced. Holder and Avesh both travelled. Hetmyer ends up with 59 off 36. He says the ball was sticking a little for the spinners and it was a slow pitch. "I literally had no idea to be honest," Hetmyer says of the Ashwin retired-out. He thinks it is a decent total because the ball is not coming on, but then again how will the dew affect the rest of the match?

R Ashwin was presumably sent in to give Riyan Parag the ideal point of entry, but Ashwin is not getting out only. He has gone at 28 off 23, which is a job done, but it is keeping Parag from batting. So after the second ball fo the 19th over, Ashwin just walks off, allowing Parag to come in. That is a first in IPL for sure. Haven't seen in international T20 cricket either.

Actually it has happened once in a T20I. Between Bhutan and Maldives

In theory, the impact of Ashwin's retired-out? Our Forecaster bumped up the projected score by seven runs the moment Ashwin walked off, from 152 to 159. Thanks to Shiva Jayaraman for this presence of mind to out a number to it.

Shimron Hetmyer at the other end had no clue of this by the way, which he confirmed later. How would this have worked? I have spoken to coaches in the past, and they are reluctant to suggest this to players. I won't be surprised if Ashwin initiated the move and sent a message back. Props to him if he did. And props to him either way even if it was a suggestion from the dugout.

That's the 18th over. Some momentum but is it enough? Projected score 154 now.

In the 16th over, R Ashwin launches into K Gowtham to hit two sixes, the first back over his head and the second off the back foot and over midwicket. At 22 off 17, Ashwin is now going faster than Shimron Hetmyer, who is 19 off 23. RR 108 for 4 going into the death overs. Projected score 147.

Round the wicket to Rassie van der Dussen, pitch on off, and then turn it against the angle to beat the inside edge and hit the top of off, K Gowtham has bowled a peach to leave RR struggling at 67 for 4. Van der Dussen got his IPL career off to a great start with a leg-side gift from Jason Holder, but this is a proper seed. And RR have promoted R Ashwin presumably to make sure Riyan Parag can have a higher-impact innings if his entry point is later. Projected score 151. It is beginning to look far now.

Another first-ball wicket. K Gowtham bowls to his Karnataka team-mate Devdutt Padikkal, who looks to reverse-sweep, but is early into the shot, and the ball lobs to slip off the back of the bat. Superb thinking to have a slip in the 10th over. Padikkal gone for a run-a-ball 29. Projected score 156.

The RR innings is going nowhere, and Sanju Samson has been beaten by a full toss from Jason Holder. Yes it is a slightly slower ball, but Samson is looking to place this into the leg side. So it seems he has been done in by the change of pace, and is actually looking to play a safe shot. Misses, and is hit dead in front. RR 60 for 2 in 8.3 overs. Projected score 155. Unlikely to be enough.

A superb end to the powerplay for LSG as Avesh Khan bowls Jos Buttler first ball and then concedes just twon runs in the last over of the field restrictions. Now starts the test for Devdutt Padikkal, who used to make quick starts for RCB but used to get stuck in the middle overs. At 44 for 1 in six overs, the projected score is 155.

There hasn't been a massive over yet but RR have got 27 for 0 in three overs. Jos Buttler and Devdutt Padikkal are their new opening combination. Two boundaries each for the openers plus four overthrows. Projected score 166.

Rajasthan Royals have lost all four of their tosses and are going to have to defend a total again after KL Rahul put them in at the Wankhede Stadium. LSG have made two changes, handing out a cap to Marcus Stoinis and also bringing back Dushmantha Chameera. Players to miss out are Evin Lewis and Andrew Tye.

RR have also made two changes, giving debuts to the Madhya Pradesh right-arm quick Kuldeep Sen and South Africa batter Rassie van der Dussen. Out go Navdeep Saini and Yashaswi Jaiswal.

Rajasthan Royals 1 Jos Buttler, 2 Devdutt Padikkal, 3 Sanju Samson (capt. & wk), 4 Shimron Hetmyer, 5 Rassie van der Dussen, 6 Riyan Parag, 7 Ravichandran Ashwin, 8 Trent Boult, 9 Yuzvendra Chahal, 10 Kuldeep Sen, 11 Prasidh Krishna

Lucknow Super Giants 1 KL Rahul (capt.), 2 Quinton de Kock (wk), 3 Marcus Stoinis, 4 Deepak Hooda, 5 Ayush Badoni, 6 Jason Holder, 7 Krunal Pandya, 8 Krishnappa Gowtham, 9 Avesh Khan, 10 Dushmantha Chameera, 11 Ravi Bishnoi