With this win, Rajasthan Royals have made it to the fifth position in the points table.Image Credit source: BCCI
Dharamshala: Rajasthan Royals have succeeded in keeping their hopes of IPL 2023 playoffs alive till the last match. In their last league match of this season against Punjab Kings Rajasthan Royals Won by 4 wickets. On the fourth ball of the last over, Dhruv Jurail gave Rajasthan this important victory by hitting a six. With this the team reached 14 points. That’s where the journey of Punjab Kings ended.
The win was very important for both the teams but Rajasthan was in a better position due to its positive Net Run Rate (NRR). Rajasthan retained their NRR with the win. Also equaled Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians with 14 points. Due to NRR, Bangalore is in fourth place, while Rajasthan is fifth and Mumbai is sixth. Rajasthan will only hope that Bangalore and Mumbai lose their matches.
Padikkal-Jaiswal’s power
The second part of this season was very bad for Rajasthan Royals opener Jos Buttler, who scored the most runs in the last season and it continued in this match as well. In the very second over, Kagiso Rabada returned Butler to the pavilion. Butler failed to open the account for the fifth time this season.
Despite this, Rajasthan did not lose courage. His two young batsmen, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Devdutt Padikkal were frozen at the crease. There was an important partnership of 73 runs between the two. During this, Padikkal completed his half-century in 29 balls but was dismissed on the very next ball. At the same time, captain Sanju Samson also lost his wicket.
Instead of his aggressive game, Yashasvi played for the sake of the team by stopping for a while and then gradually increasing the pace, scored a half-century in 35 balls. Although he also became a victim of Nathan Ellis as soon as he completed Fifty. Yashasvi’s wicket fell in the 15th over, from where Shimron Hetmyer did aggressive batting.
At the same time, Riyan Parag, who returned to the team, brought the team back in the 18th over by hitting Kagiso Rabada for two consecutive sixes. During this, a catch of Hetmyer was also missed, which proved to be decisive and Hetmyer was dismissed in the 19th over, but by then the victory was confirmed. 9 runs were needed in the last over and Dhruv Jurail, who came as an impact player, gave the team victory by hitting Rahul Chahar for a six.
Punjab’s top order failed
Rajasthan Royals had started well in this match. For that, Trent Boult had already taken the wicket of opener Prabhsimran Singh in the first over. Even for only 50 runs, 4 wickets of Punjab’s top order had fallen. Fast bowler Navdeep Saini, who returned to the Rajasthan team, took the wickets of Liam Livingston and Atharva Taide, while leg-spinner Adam Zampa returned captain Dhawan to the pavilion.
From here it seemed that Punjab’s position was difficult but wicketkeeper-batsman Jitesh Sharma, who has been doing consistently well this season, counter-attacked. Along with Sam Karan, he took the team beyond 100 runs.
Jitesh was dismissed in the 14th over, after which Shah Rukh Khan entered. Together they shared an unbeaten partnership of 73 runs in just 37 balls, out of which 46 runs came in the last two overs. In this way Punjab scored 187 runs losing 5 wickets. Saini (3/40) was the most successful bowler for Rajasthan.
Source: www.tv9hindi.com
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