Boult above all!

Trent Boult (Pic: BCCI/PTI)

Rajasthan Royals (RR) speedster Trent Boult registered a unique milestone in the powerplay while playing in the IPL 2024 encounter against Rajasthan Royals (RR) on Sunday.

Riding on Sanju Samson's onslaught and Trent Boult's brilliance, Rajasthan Royals (RR) started their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 campaign with a win at home as RR registered a 20-run victory against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium.

Boult grabbed the wicket of Quinton De Kock on the fifth ball of the first over in the second innings. With this dismissal, he extended his wickets to 23 in the first over of the powerplay in the 55 overs he bowled so far. He snapped the wickets at an average of 12.17 and conceded runs at an economy of 5.09. No other bowler has even crossed 10 wickets in this list.

Boult bagged two wickets in his spell of four overs, where he conceded 35 runs. Other than De Kock, he took the wicket of Devdutt Padikkal.

Coming to the match, the hosts Rajasthan Royals won the toss and opted to bat first in their IPL 2024 encounter.

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Openers Jos Buttler (11) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (24 in 12 balls, with three fours and a six) departed without making much impact, reducing the team to 49/2. Following that, a 93-run partnership happened between Riyan and skipper Sanju, who scored 82' in 52 balls, with three fours and six sixes. Dhruv Jurel (20' in 12 balls, with a four and six) finished off well to take RR to 193/4 in 20 overs.

LSG was reduced to 11/3 in the chase of 194 runs. Then Deepak Hooda (26 in 13 balls, with two fours and two sixes) along with KL stabilised the innings a bit. Following Hooda's dismissal, which left LSG at 60/4, KL stitched an 85-run stand with Nicholas Pooran (64 in 41 balls, with four boundaries and four sixes). But a win was not meant to be for LSG as RR made a comeback with timely wickets, reducing LSG to 173/6 in 20 overs.

Boult (2/35) was the pick of the bowlers for RR. Sandeep, Ashwin, Nandre Burger and Yuzvendra Chahal took a wicket each. Samson was given the 'Player of the Match' award for his half-century.

(With agency inputs)