After losing two consecutive matches, the Rajasthan Royals won a very crucial game against Punjab Kings. Last night, they beat Punjab Kings by 6-wickets with two balls in hand. This victory keeps the hope alive for Rajasthan to go to the semifinals of this tournament. They are standing in 3rd place with 14 points.
On the other hand, Punjab Kings have been suffering this season. They are not consistent. That makes the future of Punjab uncertain as they are in the 7th place on the table.
Match Review
Punjab’s captain Mayank Agarwal won the toss at the Wankhede Stadium and decided to bat first. So, Shikhar Dhawan started the innings with the English batsman, Jonny Bairstow. As they wanted to make a big score, both batsmen started playing attacking from the beginning of the match. Jonny Bairstow was a bit more aggressive than Shikhar Dhawan. However, they added 47 runs in the opening partnership.
Unfortunately, their partnership broke when Shikhar Dhawan lost the wicket in the 6th over. Before losing the wicket, Dhawan scored 12 runs for the team. But Jonny Bairstow continued playing aggressively. He made another partnership of 42 runs with the new batsman, Bhanuka Rajapaksa. After a while, Rajapaksa departed the pitch scoring 27 runs. However, Bairstow didn’t miss the half-century. He scored a very meaningful 56 runs before losing the wicket.
In the lower order, Jitesh Sharma played a vital role for Punjab Kings. He remained not out in 38 runs. As a result, Punjab Kings set a target of 189 runs for the Rajasthan Royals. Spinner Yuzvendra Chahal got three wickets of the Kings.
Chasing the target, Rajasthan Royals had a brilliant start. Yashavsi Jaiswal and Josh Buttler started chasing the target very confidently. They added 46 runs in just 4 overs. Suddenly, Josh Buttler lost his wicket to Kagiso Rabada. After that, Yashavsi Jaiswal made a brilliant partnership of 39 runs with the new batsman, Sanju Samson. But the captain couldn’t stay longer on the pitch. He had to go back to the pavilion after scoring 23 off 12 balls. But Yashavsi Jaiswal continued scoring runs. He scored the highest 68 runs before losing the wicket. In the end, Devdutt Padikkal and Shimron Hetmyar successfully chased the target with 2-balls left.
