Mitch Marsh did his best to bail out Lucknow Super Giants but his half-century wasn’t enough to save them from defeat
Mitch Marsh has delivered a pugnacious half-century, his best knock of the IPL season — but it still wasn’t enough to deliver a badly needed victory for Justin Langer’s struggling charges, the Lucknow Super Giants.
Australia’s T20 skipper did his best to bail out a sinking ship on his home ground in their 40-run defeat against Rajasthan Royals on Wednesday, hitting his first 50 of the campaign while wickets were tumbling all around him.
Eventually, though, a couple of balls after he flat-batted Nandre Burger for a big six over long-off to reach his half-century, the opener himself proved the decisive sixth wicket to fall as he reached for a wide one from the South African quick and lofted it to Royals’ skipper Riyan Parag at extra cover.
It was a grievous disappointment for the Langer-coached Super Giants, who had earlier bowled excellently after putting Rajasthan in, left-arm quick Mohsin Khan getting rid of ‘wonder boy’ Vaibhav Sooryavanshi for just eight and going on to take a mean 2-17 off his allocation as Lucknow were restricted to 6-159.
Only a breezy 43no off 29 at the death from the evergreen allrounder Ravindra Jadeja gave the total an air of respectability.
Naturally, Jadeja also got into the act with his crafty spin too, going on to win the player-of-the-match award as he grabbed the key wicket of Nicolas Pooran, who’d threatened to wrestle back control with Marsh after Lucknow had spiralled to 3-11.
Marsh has had a mixed season to date, unable to push on to a fifty despite enjoying knocks of 40, 40 and 35 earlier in the campaign, but he’ll still have been frustrated after moving to his 55 off 41 balls, including two sixes and six fours, that he should be hoodwinked by Burger (2-27).
Until that point, Lucknow still had reason for belief, but Archer (3-20), bowling at 150kph-plus, then ripped through the tail to become Rajasthan’s all-time leading wicket taker and bowl out the Super Giants for just 119 with a couple of overs remaining.
Archer now has 68 scalps from 54 matches and has left behind a couple of Rajasthan’s former Australian stars, Shane Watson, who took 61 wickets, and Shane Warne, who snaffled 57.
Rajasthan have moved on to 10 points, one behind the Ricky Ponting-coached leaders, Punjab Kings, but Lucknow have now lost four on the bounce and are ninth of the 10 teams, just ahead of Cameron Green’s Kolkata Knight Riders.
IPL 2026 standings
Australians in IPL 2026
Chennai Super Kings: Matt Short ($255k), Spencer Johnson ($255k, replaces Nathan Ellis ($340k))
Delhi Capitals: Mitchell Starc ($2m)
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Josh Hazlewood ($2.13m), Tim David ($510k)
Punjab Kings: Marcus Stoinis ($1.9m), Ben Dwarshuis ($745k), Mitchell Owen ($510k), Cooper Connolly ($510k), Xavier Bartlett ($136k)
Kolkata Knight Riders: Cameron Green ($3.5m)
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Pat Cummins ($3.5m), Travis Head ($2.38m), Jack Edwards ($510k, withdrawn)
Lucknow Super Giants: Josh Inglis ($1.49m), Mitchell Marsh ($578k)
