Jadeja’s 43 and Archer’s 3 for 20 defend 159 as RR beat LSG by 40 runs at Ekana
Jofra Archer took 3 for 20 and Ravindra Jadeja produced an unbeaten 43 off 29 balls with bat and a tidy spell with it as Rajasthan Royals successfully defended 159 to beat Lucknow Super Giants by 40 runs at the Ekana Stadium on Wednesday night. It was the win that moved RR into second place in the IPL 2026 table and one that ended a two-match losing streak.
Lucknow were bowled out for 119 in 18 overs chasing a target that never looked beyond them on this surface. Only Mitchell Marsh, with 55 off 41 balls, really settled at the crease, and once he fell the innings collapsed in familiar fashion for a side that has now lost more often than it has won in IPL 2026.
Jadeja drags Rajasthan to a defendable total
RR had problems of their own with the bat. Yashasvi Jaiswal made a quick 22 off 12 balls but could not kick on, and the LSG pace trio of Mohammed Shami, Mohsin Khan and Prince Yadav shared six wickets between them. By the middle overs Rajasthan were on track for a score closer to 130 than 160, and it took Jadeja to hold the innings together.
His 43 not out came with an unbeaten 49-run stand for the seventh wicket with impact player Shubham Dubey, who made 19 not out off 11 balls to push the total into the range where the bowlers could work with it. Nicholas Pooran, Mitchell Marsh and the LSG bench will have looked at 159 as a modest target. It proved anything but on this surface.
Archer finds his rhythm
Archer has had a quiet few weeks by his standards, and this was the spell that looked like his best. He had the pace, he had the steep bounce off a slowish Ekana pitch, and he used both to rip through the Lucknow middle order once Marsh had walked off. Three wickets for 20 in four overs was the headline, but the damage he did between the 10th and 15th overs was what really killed the chase.
Nandre Burger picked up two more and never allowed Pooran or Ayush Badoni to settle. Badoni was run out for a duck after a mix-up with Marsh that summed up where LSG are right now. Jadeja’s single wicket, late, was almost a formality by the time it arrived.
RR move up, LSG run out of answers
Rajasthan now have 10 points from seven matches and the second spot in the table with a healthy net run rate of 0.790. It is a good place to be with the business end of the tournament in sight, and the balance of their XI, with Jadeja at the top of his game and Archer back to being a handful, is starting to look like the version RR imagined at the auction.
Lucknow sit ninth. Rishabh Pant was out for a three-ball duck, his third single-digit score in five innings, and a side that was supposed to be challenging for the top four is now chasing the bottom half of the table for something to play for. The squad has the pieces, but the middle order has not fired in weeks and the captain’s own form is the biggest worry.
Cricket Updates
