Kings XI Punjab earned their sixth win of the match last night after defeating Rajasthan Royals by 6 wickets at the Holkar Stadium. Kings XI Punjab, moved to the third position at the tables after the last night’s match.
The players of KXIP gave their best in both the innings. In the first innings, they didn’t let the players of Rajasthan Royals earn free runs by their death bowling and extra-ordinary fielding. Rajasthan Royals stumbled to 152/9 in 20 overs after the first innings.
The first innings for Rajasthan Royals was opened by Joss Buttler who scored 51 runs in 39 balls, while the star player of RR, Sanju Samson, scored 28 runs off 23 balls. Mujeeb Ur Rahman, delivered death bowling and took 3 big wickets.
In the second innings, KL Rahul, representing Kings XI Punjab gave a devastating performance and made sure that his team wins the match and moves to the third position in the table. He was slow in the beginning but just like any other great batsmen, he took the responsibility on his own shoulders and soaked in all the pressure until he hit the winning shot. He scored 84 runs in 54 balls.
Talking about the other players, Chris Gayle failed to gave us ‘Gayle storm’ tonight and ended up scoring only 8 runs in 11 balls. Karun Nair scored 31 runs in 23 balls. Marcus Stoinis, remained unbeaten and scored 23 off 16 balls.
T
he skipper of Rajasthan Royals, Ajinkya Rahane after loosing the match said:
“Pretty disappointed. 170-175 on this pitch would have very good. We didn’t bat very well, including me. Guys have to learn. Bowlers in IPL are bowling well. We lost crucial wickets, didn’t get partnerships. We cannot give excuses all the time.
We are all professional cricketers. It’s all about execution as I mentioned. As batsmen, we were in doubt about whether we should go for our shots or not. (Talking about KL Rahul’s catch) was a clear catch but the umpires thought otherwise. We are still in the game. We can win five out of five now.”
Talking about the match the
skipper of KXIP, Ravichandran Ashwin, said:
“
We didn’t play for some time and we hadn’t got any points over the last two weeks. There was a bit of nervousness and it’s glad to get two points. This win is good because we were tested in our batting. One of our batsmen batted deep and that’s what we’ve been asking for.
Most of our wins have been set up the bowlers, 12 points have been set up by the bowlers. Good to know that one department is firing on all cylinders. Many of the batters are inexperienced and as the tournament goes on, I expect them to do better. Didn’t come with any expectations to be honest, just came here to gauge the situation and do my best.
The most important thing for a captain is to rotate the bowlers well and to get the batting order right. The guys who let me down will win me games tomorrow, that’s the perspective I came here with.”
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