Sanju Samson was a disappointed captain as Rajasthan Royals (RR) suffered a narrow 10-run defeat at the hands of Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Wednesday (April 19).

Chasing 155 to win, the Royals got off to a brilliant start as the duo of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Jos Buttler added 87 runs for the opening wicket.

However, Jaiswal’s (44 off 35) dismissal in the 12th over triggered a collapse as RR slipped to 104/4, losing Buttler (40 off 41), Sanju Samson (2) and Shimron Hetmyer (2) in quick succession.

While Devdutt Padikkal (26 off 21) and Riyan Parag (15* off 12) tried to resurrect Rajasthan Royals’ innings, they failed to take the team over the line. Avesh Khan (3-25) defended 19 runs off the last over and restricted RR to 144/6.

“Obviously, not great, but we need to take the lessons and move on from here. With the batting line-up we have, that was a chaseable score. They bowled well, used the conditions well, but I still believe it was a chaseable score,” Samson said at the post-match presentation ceremony.

The RR skipper admitted that losing wickets at regular intervals in the run-chase didn’t help their cause.

“I was expecting something like this (the pitch), a bit of low bounce and I think we got something like that. We needed to play smart cricket and we were going really well till about over 9-10. Then it was about getting one big over in the middle phase. They bowled well and when we tried to go hard, we lost wickets,” he added.

Despite the defeat, the Royals retained their top position on the points table with four wins from six games and a net run rate of +1.043.

Rajasthan Royals will next face Royal Challengers Bangalore at Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday (April 23).