Young Indian pacer Kartik Tyagi’s excellent last over saved the day for Rajasthan Royals, who looked down and out in the contest against Punjab Kings and yet came out triumphant by two runs.
Tyagi successfully defended four runs that the Kings required off the final six balls despite starting the over with their two middle-order batsmen Aiden Markram and Nicholas Pooran set at the crease. The young gun nailed one yorker after another as he never allowed the PBKS batsmen to getaway.
Initially beginning with a low full-toss that Markram could only mistime towards the extra cover fielder before taking a single off the next ball, Tyagi bowled the four balls of his life as he then got Pooran caught behind with a widish yorker that the left-hander looked to nudge past the keeper but ended up giving him an easy catch.
That dismissal surely brought some nerves into the PBKS dressing room, something that reflected in the way Deepak Hooda batted. He first missed a wide yorker from Tyagi and then edged the next ball to RR skipper Sanju Samson.
With the equation suddenly down to three off one ball and momentum firmly behind him, Tyagi backed his strengths and stuck to the yorker ploy against Fabian Allen, who couldn’t get his bat down in time for a full-pitched ball outside the off-stump. At the age of 20, Tyagi won RR the match that they had no business winning only a few minutes before.
Either side of that over, specifically the last three balls, the match looked well within PBKS grasp. They got off to a solid start in their chase of 186, with skipper KL Rahul (49 off 33) laying a strong foundation alongside fellow opening batsman Mayank Agarwal (67 off 43). The duo put on 120 runs for the first wicket from 71 balls and set up the game for the middle-order.
Markram (26* off 20) and Pooran (32 off 22) both batted with great freedom at the crease and had added 67 runs for the third wicket before Pooran got out and PBKS completely messed it up in the final over against Tyagi’s pinpoint accurate yorkers.
For most parts of the chase, PBKS had exploited RR’s bowling issues quite well. They smashed both Chetan Sakariya (1/31) and Chris Morris (0/47) for over ten an over. Morris was the biggest letdown in the bowling attack for RR.
Thankfully for them, Tyagi, wrist-spinner Rahul Tewatia (1/23) and Mustafizur Rahman (0/30) were there for their rescue. Mustafizur’s role was immense in this victory, as he gave away only four runs in the penultimate over and ensured that the game was not completely lost before Tyagi stepped up to bowl the final over.
The first half was an interesting one, too, as RR looked like getting a score well past 200 but fell well short of it because of some fine bowling and indifferent batting from their lower middle-order. RR were 136/4 midway through the 15th over of their innings, thanks largely to openers Even Lewis (36 off 21), Yashasvi Jaiswal (49 off 36) and middle-order batsman Mahipal Lomror (43 off 17). But they still finished with 185 all out.
PBKS pacers Mohammed Shami (3/21) and Arshdeep Singh (5/32) bowled very nicely at the death and got multiple RR middle and lower order players out on the boundary ropes, executing their yorkers quite efficiently. But despite them pulling things back nicely, PBKS ultimately suffered a defeat on the night.
Brief scores
Rajasthan Royals 185 in 20 overs (Jaiswal 49, Lomror 43; Singh 5/32, Shami 3/21) beat Punjab Kings 183/4 in 20 overs (Agarwal 67, KL Rahul 49; Tyagi 2/29, Tewatia 1/23) by 2 runs.
