RR Royals brushed off their loss in their previous encounter against the Mumbai Indians, romping home to victory against PBKS, who were coming off a dominant victory against table-toppers Gujarat Titans.
It was a typically high-scoring game, as a total of 190 was chased down by the Royals. Punjab were good with the bat, with Jonny Bairstow doing particularly well, before Liam Livingstone and Jitesh Sharma played valuable knocks to take their side to a good total.
However, Punjab were once again let down by their bowling attack, which, apart from the exceptional Arshdeep Singh, was largely poor. Shimron Hetmyer’s season in terms of his finishing only went from strength to strength. He delivered the goods yet again for Rajasthan, and also at a time when his side were in a state of panic.
Sanju Samson’s winless run in tosses was extended to six games in a row Mayank Agarwal decided to bat first, keeping the heat in mind. Bairstow received a few lives early on in his innings but was the aggressor as Shikhar Dhawan struggled to get going. He played 16 balls for 12 runs before he was eventually dismissed by Yuzvendra Chahal. Bhanuka Rajapaksa also played an entertaining innings of 27 at a strike rate of 150.
Agarwal’s decision to come in at number did not do him any favours as he was dismissed for just 15 runs before Bairstow also followed him back two balls later. Jitesh and Livingstone were then tasked with the responsibility of taking their side to a respectable total after a good start. The Englishman took charge earlier and played an innings with an interesting yet effective stance outside his off-stump before Sharma’s wonderful hitting propelled Punjab to a ferocious finish.
Rajasthan began on a high note too. Both Yashavi Jaiswal and Jos Buttler looked at home, scoring quickly during the powerplay. Buttler could not carry on, as he was dismissed for a score of 30 by veteran Kagiso Rabada. Samson walked in at three and played some magisterial drives, but he could not convert his start, as Rishi Dhawan sent him packing.
Devdutt Padikkal was the next to walk in and built a good partnership with Jaiswal, but was unable to score quickly, putting pressure on his partner. Yashavi’s dismissal started to put the doubts back into the minds of the Rajasthan supporters, but Hetmyer was in such good form that the tricky chase seemed elementary to him.
He freely struck boundaries and sixes during the final few overs as Rajasthan staved off the climbing run rate. Despite Arshdeep’s brilliant death overs bowling, the Kings were unable to stop the Royals from walking away with the victory. The lack of wickets upfront on a Mumbai pitch that aided the batsmen helped.
Rajasthan’s victory takes them to 14 points, and the battle in the middle seems to be cooling down just a little bit. For PBKS, a qualification for Punjab is an extremely unlikely scenario that would depend on the results of the other games.
Brief scores
Rajasthan Royals 190 for 4 (Jaiswal 68, Hetmyer 31*, Padikkal 31, Arshdeep 2-29) beat Punjab Kings 189 for 5 (Bairstow 56, Jitesh 38*, Chahal 3-28) by six wickets
