In the 52nd match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022, Rajasthan Royals (RR) defeated Punjab Kings (PBKS) by six wickets at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
Mayank Agarwal won the toss and asked Rajasthan Royals to bowl first. The decision worked out pretty well for the champions of season one as they managed to restrict PBKS to just at par score which could have been worse given the start they got. Yuzvendra Chahal was once again brilliant with the ball and along with him, Trent Boult too was economical. Some good bowling in the death allowed PBKS to reach only 189/5 in 20 overs.
In the chase, Both the openers, Yashasvi Jaiswal (68) and Jos Buttler (30) started off fiercely as they attacked all the bowlers right from the word go. Buttler was once again looking dangerous with the blade in his hand but couldn’t manage to take it beyond the powerplay. Captain Sanju Samson (23) was also in fine touch as he was scoring boundaries for fun. These batsmen appeared to want to finish the game rapidly as if they were under the assumption that the team needed some run rate to chase as well. Jaiswal was the only batsman who played almost throughout the inning and made sure the team reaches the target. With a decent strike rate of 165.85, compared to the other batters, the Mumbai based batsman smashed nine fours and two sixes to confirm RR’s first win while chasing. In the end, Shimron Hetmyer (31*) did the formality and won the game for RR in the last over. Of course, there were some final hiccups but Hetmyer kept his cool and brought two points home comfortably.
In the first innings, Jonny Bairstow (56) finally got some runs under his belt today as he managed to get a half-century in some stylish manner. The Englishman hammered all the bowlers in powerplay at the strike rate of 140 which truly gave a rocking start to PBKS. Bhanuka Rajapaksa (27) continued the attack on RR bowlers but couldn’t capitalise on it. The middle overs were difficult for PBKS as they found it hard to score some boundaries. In the end, some valuable knocks by Jitesh Sharma (38*) and Liam Livingstone (22) took PBKS to a par score of 189/5.
Yuzvendra Chahal was magical with the ball yet again as he plucked three wickets in the first innings. Along with him, Prasidh Krishna also got a wicket but wasn’t economical enough. Ravichandran Ashwin also managed to pick one wicket.
Arshdeep Singh was the talk of the match as he bowled ‘the brilliant over’ of the Match in the penultimate over. The youngster also picked two wickets in his quota of four overs. Kagiso Rabada and Rishi Dhawan also plucked one wicket each.
Yashasvi Jaiswal was awarded the Man of the Match for his sensible knock. Rajasthan Royals remains at the third position on the table but this time with 14 points.
Scorecard:
Punjab Kings: 189/5, Overs 20, Jonny Bairstow 56, Yuzvendra Chahal 3/28
Rajasthan Royals: 190/4, Overs 19.4, Yashasvi Jaiswal 68, Arshdeep Singh 2/29