Ravindra Jadeja put on a vintage all-round show and Jofra Archer nailed it at the death, as the Rajasthan Royals took down the Lucknow Super Giants by 40 runs at the Ekana International Cricket Stadium.
It was a game shaped by sharp moves on a slow pitch, and Rajasthan came out of it not just with a much-needed win after two losses, but with their title hopes firmly back in the conversation for IPL 2026.
Jadeja’s finish set the tone. Lucknow had made the right call to bowl first, and Mohammed Shami wasted no time getting things to swing his way—he knocked out Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi early, and when skipper Riyan Parag fell for 20, Rajasthan looked in real trouble at 77 for 5. But Jadeja, fresh from a big off-season trade, stuck around and showed exactly why teams pay so much for experience under pressure. His unbeaten 43 from 29 balls stitched together Rajasthan’s innings. He and Shubham Dubey put on 49 for the sixth wicket, mixing smart ones-and-twos with the odd boundary, and in the last few overs, Jadeja found the fence just when Rajasthan needed it most. They ended up at 159 for 6—a score that suddenly looked more than enough on this grippy surface.
Lucknow’s chase just never got going. Mitchell Marsh did his bit, smashing 55 off 41 balls, but no one else stuck around. Rajasthan’s bowling was relentless. They kept it tight from both ends, and in the middle overs, the spin twins—Ravi Bishnoi and Jadeja—turned the screws. Bishnoi, facing his old team, picked off Himmat Singh just as things looked like they might shift for Lucknow. After that, the Royals striking unit shifted up a gear. Brijesh Sharma ripped through the tail in the 17th over, snapping up two wickets in three balls and leaving Lucknow on the ropes.
Then came Archer’s closing act. Lucknow needed 45 off 12 balls, but Archer wasn’t having any of it. He hounded the batters at close to 150 clicks, and sealed the game with a pair of wicked yorkers that cleaned up Mayank Yadav and Mohsin Khan, wrapping things up with Lucknow skittled for 119 in the 18th.
This win bumps Rajasthan up the standings, and does it on the back of a bowling attack that smothered a solid Lucknow batting lineup. For LSG, a fourth straight loss stings—and Rishabh Pant’s side now faces some serious questions as they drift into the mid-season crunch.