Kings XI Punjab defeated Rajasthan Royals by 6 wickets in the 38th match of VIVO IPL 2018 played at Holkar Stadium, Indore just finished a few moments ago. Kings XI Punjab captain R Ashwin won the toss and elected to field first, the bowlers did a great job to restrict RR for just 152. Chasing modest total, Kings XI Punjab lost wickets but KL Rahul special knock helped hosts to register a win.
Kings XI Punjab captain Ravichandran Ashwin won the toss and elected to field first. The captain R Ashwin got the early breakthrough dismissing Darcy Short for 2 runs in the very first over. Jos Buttler who came to open the innings played with positive intent putting pressure on Kings XI Punjab bowlers.
Rajasthan Royals captain Rahane was dismissed cheaply for 5 runs. The second wicket put on 32 runs for the 2nd wicket. At the end of 6 overs, Rajasthan Royals scored 45 for 2. After the powerplay overs, Jos Buttler survived an LBW shout which was given out by the umpire and Buttler decided to review. The ball did not pitch in line and umpire reversed its decision.
Sanju Samson and Jos Buttler added 49 runs for the 3rd wicket before the Kings XI Punjab took wickets at regular intervals. Samson was dismissed for 28 runs. Ben Stokes again failed to contribute big runs. Buttler reached his half-century off 37 balls. After that Mujeeb Ur Rahman bowled a brilliant spell to take 3 wickets. In the end, Sheryas Gopal scored 24.
Kings XI Punjab restricted Rajasthan Royals to 152 for 9 in 20 overs. Mujeeb Ur Rahman picked 3 wickets for Kings XI Punjab while Andrew Tye picked 2 wickets.
Chasing 153 runs to win, Chris Gayle and KL Rahul got off to steady start adding 23 runs for the first wicket. Gayle and Mayank Agarwal went in quick succession. Rajasthan Royals bowlers did a great job to restrict the run flow. At the end of 6 overs, Kings XI Punjab were 34 for 2.
Karun Nair and KL Rahul steadied the innings with a good partnership between the two Karnataka batsmen. Both Nair and Rahul added 50 runs for the 3rd wicket. Again Rajasthan Royals picked 2 wickets in quick succession to leave Kings XI Punjab at 87 for 4. KL Rahul slowed down a little with his batting.
It was then the KL Rahul show who took the charge with some aggressive hitting while Marcus Stoinis also gave him full support. Rahul reached his half-century off 44 balls and continued to play positive strokes, remained not out on 84 off 54 balls. Both KL Rahul and Stoinis added 68 runs unbeaten for the 5th wicket.
For Rajasthan Royals, K Gowtham, Archer, Ben Stokes and Anureet Singh picked 1 wicket each.
KXIP 155 for 4 in 18.4 overs ( KL Rahul 84*, Karun Nair 31, Stoinis 23*, K Gowtham 1/18) beat
RR 152 for 9 in 20 overs ( Jos Buttler 51, Sanju Samson 28, Mujeeb Ur Rahman 3/27, Andrew Tye 2/24) by 6 wickets.
RR captain Rahane said: We needed 170-175 runs on this pitch. The wicket was not easy to bat on. We are still in the tournament and need to win 5 out of 5 matches from here on. Rahul played brilliantly and stayed till the end which gave KXIP a win.
KXIP captain R Ashwin said: This win is important because we tested in our batting. The bowlers have been doing a great job and the 12 points we have got are due to top quality bowling. Many of our batsmen are inexperienced and would expect them to do better in the upcoming games.
Man of the match Mujeeb Ur Rahman said: Happy with my performance. The pitch helped the spinners and bowled stump to stump not allowing the RR batsmen to score runs. They started well but picked 3 wickets to change the course of the game in our favour. Want too much more in the upcoming games which would be important.
Sunrisers Hyderabad will take on Royal Challengers in tomorrow”s match at Hyderabad.
