Defeating Rajasthan Royals, the Kings XI Punjab moved up the IPL2018 ranking and went up to 3rd position in the 38th match of the VIVI Indian Premier League 2018.
It was ace batsmen KL Rahul who hit a splendid 84 runs and steered his team to victory.
Punjab won the toss. Punjab decided to field first against the Rajasthan Royals
In the very first over Ashwin took the wicket of ace batsman D Arcy Short. And the next wicket fell when Rahane was caught by Gayle.
Wickets fell for Royals in regular intervals and at one stage it felt as if this was going to be a low scoring game till the 15th over.
Kings XI were the frontrunners from the very beginning and Rajasthan needed a revival which never came as they had to win this one to stay in the tournament. The Punjab bowlers kept the pressure on and Rajasthan could only manage 152 in their 20 overs.
Chasing a modest total of 153 runs to win, Gayle and Rahul accelerated from the start and started hitting the balls for runs.
Gayle’s wicket went to Jofra Archer and Mayank Agarwal went to stokes. All was going well for Punjab when Anureet Singh bowled Nair in the 11th over.
Rahul was in form and went ahead and Axar Patel joined him. Rahul was lucky as the keeper dropped him in the 12th over and the two batsmen kept the runs coming with singles and two’s.
Axar dint last long and there was a faint hope for the Rajasthan side. All Rajasthan needed to do was to halt Rahul and that would have been a turning point for them.
Punjab at one stage was under pressure as the required rate went up to 9 per over. Finally, Kings XI, Punjab needed 12 from the last two overs and Rahul finished in style by hitting a six in the 19th over and then a boundary too
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