IPL Pulse: Fast, maybe furious

The surface at Jaipur was flatter and smoother than most highways. The result was a familiar high-scoring game, with the team batting first never feeling secure and always having an eye on the proverbial rear-view mirror.

Marsh-Inglis smashed 109 (50) in the opening stand

LSG lost three wickets in the final over to finish with 220/5

Sooryavanshi started slow, Jaiswal the opposite

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's date with a third IPL century nearly ended via the most avoidable route possible. Stranded on 92 after a horror mix-up, he was gone by a mile… until Mohsin Khan produced a finish that belonged in a blooper reel and missed the stumps from point-blank range. Thankfully for Mohsin, embarrassment had a short shelf life. He had Sooryavanshi holing out to long-on later in the same over.

Awards Section:

• No-time-to-write award: Akash Singh for not pulling out any chits after dismissing Yashasvi Jaiswal
• No-luck-nineties award: Mitch Marsh for being run-out while batting in the 90s for a second successive game
• Cryptic-omission award: Mohammed Shami, his absence from the XI prompting an explanation that explained very little
• Swift-swipe award: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi for allowing Mitch Marsh to enjoy the Orange Cap for all of one innings

A blazing start and a slump in the middle – LSG's batting followed a recurring pattern last night. At 149/1 after 12 overs, they could only manage 71 runs in the final eight overs, leaving 220 looking under par.

Rishabh Pant had a moment at the toss and another during the post-match chat where he said the loss did not take away from the fact that LSG "are a f**#ing good team."

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi wasn't quite sure of the meaning behind his fifty celebration: "I just do something new every match. There's no meaning behind it."

Justin Langer said he couldn't explain how happy he was for Prince Yadav, who got picked in India's ODI squad: "He's one of a kind."

Riyan Parag felt Sooryavanshi played his "best innings" last night.

Sooryavanshi is the youngest to complete 500 runs in an IPL season.

KKR haven't had the smoothest campaign but they're still hanging in there. They'll need a win against MI tonight and quite a bit of praying to reach the playoffs.

Reckless prediction for today: All interviews will be free of expletives.