Jaipur, April 19 (IANS) Pacer Avesh Khan picked 3-37, including defending nine runs off the final over, as Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) defended 180 with aplomb and beat Rajasthan Royals by two runs at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium here on Saturday.

At 156/2 in 17 overs, RR were very much in the hunt to complete the chase, as the equation read 25 runs off 18 balls. But Avesh, with his pinpoint yorkers, removed set batters Yashasvi Jaiswal and Riyan Parag, before taking out Shimron Hetmyer in the final over and completing a memorable win for LSG, leaving RR’s home crowd stunned.

For RR, it was despair yet again as twice in a row, they have failed to close out straightforward chases. The defeat in Jaipur also meant that Sandeep Sharma leaking 27 runs in the final over, including giving away four sixes to Abdul Samad, did come back to pinch them hard, as RR slumped to their fourth consecutive defeat.

Chasing 181, after Jaiswal began by whipping Shardul Thakur for four, the 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi announced himself on the big stage by backing away to carve an off-drive off Shardul Thakur over extra-cover for six on his first ball. He then cleared his front leg to clobber Avesh Khan down the ground for another six.

Suryavanshi got a fat top edge on a mistimed pull, but Prince Yadav put down the skier, and Ravi Bishnoi parried the ball over the boundary rope. After taking a four and six off Thakur, Jaiswal brought up RR’s fifty by slog-sweeping and hammering down the ground off Aiden Markram for back-to-back sixes, before pulling Prince for another maximum, as RR made 61/1 in power-play.

Jaiswal and Suryavanshi continued to march forward by taking boundaries off Digvesh Rathi and Ravi Bishnoi before the former got his second straight fifty off 31 balls. But LSG broke RR’s 85-run opening stand when Suryavanshi was beaten in flight by Markram and lost his balance, with Rishabh Pant quick to dislodge the bails. One brought two for LSG as Nitish Rana pulled straight to deep backward square leg off Avesh.

Jaiswal, who scythed balls through the backward point region for fun, found an able partner in stand-in captain Riyan Parag to ensure RR aced their chase. Parag flicked and thumped Prince for six and four respectively, before getting a glove edge off Digvesh for four and tonking Avesh for six.

Avesh, though, flattened Jaiswal’s middle stump with a perfect yorker, before trapping Parag lbw with another yorker on off-stump. With the equation reading 19 runs off 11 balls, Shimron Hetmyer took two fours off Prince via a drive and flick, before flicking to short fine leg off Avesh in the final over.

After David Miller dropped a sitter off Shubham Dubey, a boundary was needed off the last ball, and Avesh conceded only one run to help LSG pick crucial two points and move back to the top four in the points table.

Brief scores:

Lucknow Super Giants 180/5 in 20 overs (Aiden Markram 66, Ayush Badoni 50; Wanindu Hasaranga 2-31, Tushar Deshpande 1-26) beat Rajasthan Royals 178/5 in 20 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 74, Riyan Parag 39; Avesh Khan 3-37, Aiden Markram 1-18) by two runs