Rajasthan beats Punjab by 4 wickets to remain in contention for playoffs

DHARAMSALA: Rajasthan Royals defeated Punjab Kings by four wickets to keep its playoff hopes alive in the IPL here on Friday. The defeat meant Punjab is knocked out of the tournament, joining Delhi Capitals and Sunrisers Hyderabad. Rajasthan moved up to fifth in the points table with 14 points from 14 games.

Set to chase 188, Rajasthan’s Yashasvi Jaiswal 50 (36b, 8x4) and Devdutt Padikkal 51 (30b, 5x4, 3x6) added 73 runs for the second wicket after opener Jos Buttler fell cheaply for 0.

Towards the end Shimron Hetmyer struck 46 (28b, 4x4, 3x6) to steer his side to a much-needed win. Earlier, Sam Curran (49 not out) and Jitesh Sharma (44) revived the innings while M Shahrukh Khan (41 not out) provided the late surge to power Punjab to 187 for 5. Asked to take the first strike, PBKS was down 50 for 4 but Curran and Jitesh added 64 to resurrect the innings.

The England all-rounder and Shahrukh then piled up 73 off 37 balls with 46 of them coming off the last 2 overs to take it to a good score. Trent Boult pegged PBKS back, dismissing Prabhsimran Singh (2) with a caught and bowled effort in the second ball but Shikhar Dhawan (17) and Atharva Taide (19) kept dealing in boundaries as they were looking good at 38 for 1 in 3.3 overs.

A 16-run blitz from Dhawan against Sandeep Sharma in the second over was followed by another 12-run over with Boult at the receiving end this time as Atharva sent him sailing over deep backward square leg and Dhawan picked one four across the cover point area. Playing only his second game, Navdeep Saini (3/40) broke the partnership with Atharva Taide (19) holing out at midwicket after hitting successive fours. Boult and Zampa conceded just 3 runs each in the next two overs which put Dhawan under pressure and he was then beaten on length when he tried to play a sweep with Zampa trapping him in front. Liam Livingstone then became Saini’s second victim, leaving the stumps in disarray after the batter went for an aggressive swing as PBKS slipped to 50 for 4 in 6.3 overs. Overs 5 to 9 yielded just 20 runs as PBKS lost two wickets. After the strategic timeout, Jitesh changed gears, smashing Sandeep Sharma for two maximums over long-off before thumping Zampa across the deep extra cover. Saini was next in his firing line, slicing one across point before smoking him over deep extra cover. A short ball was next hammered across the mid-wicket region.

BRIEF SCORES: Punjab Kings 187/5 in 20 overs (S Curran 49*, J Sharma 44, M Shahrukh Khan 41*, N Saini 3/40) lost to Rajasthan Royals 189/6 in 19.4 overs (D Padikkal 51, Y Jaiswal 50, S Hetmyer 46)