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Dharamsala: Rajasthan Royals defeated Punjab Kings by 4 wickets in the only match of the day played in Dharamshala on Friday under ongoing IPL, but despite the victory, Rajasthani lags behind RCB in terms of net run-rate. The bigger challenge in front of Rajasthan was to score a better net run than RCB, but it suffered a setback in the beginning, when Atishi Jos Buttler (00) could not even open the account, but young Yashasvi Jaiswal (50) and Devdutt Padikkal (51) Adding 84 runs for the second wicket raised hopes of a better net run-rate for Rajasthan than RCB.
Sanju Samson (2) left the team soon on this occasion, but when Jaiswal was out, Rajasthan’s problems started increasing from here. At one end, Shimron Hatire (46) raised hopes by hitting some shots, while Riyan Parag (20) also tried, but the pressure between the empty balls increased so much that the hope of a better run-rate ended. For this, Rajasthan had to achieve the target of victory in 18.3 overs, but achieved it in 19.4 overs with a delay of seven balls. Devdutt Padikkal was chosen as the player of the match.
In the first innings, Punjab Kings set a target of 188 runs to win against Rajasthan in a very important match. Punjab got off to a bad start after getting the first treat of batting. His top-order batsmen Prabhsimran (2), Shikhar Dhawan (17), Atharva Taide (19) and Livingstone (9) were dismissed soon. Punjab’s four wickets had fallen for 50 runs only.
But from here Sam Kuran (49 not out) and wicketkeeper Jitesh Sharma (44) batted well, while Shah Rukh Khan (41 not out) also batted well at the time of need. Due to this, Punjab Kings were able to touch the figure of 187 for 5 wickets in 20 overs of the quota. Navdeep Saini took maximum 3 wickets. Rajasthan won the toss and decided to bowl first. The final XI of both the teams that played in the match were as follows:
Rajasthan: 1. Sanju Samson (Captain) 2. Yashasvi Jaiswal 3. Jos Butter 4. Devdutt Padikkal 5. Simron Hetmyer 6. Trent Boult 7. Riyan Parag 8. Adam Zampa 9. Yuzvendra Chahal 10. Sandeep Sharma 11. Navdeep Saini
Punjab: 1. Shikhar Dhawan (Captain) 2. Prabhsimran Singh 3. Atharva Taide 4. Liam Livingstone 5. Jitesh Sharma 6. Shahrukh Khan 7. Sam Curran 8. Harpreet Brar 9. Rahul Chahar 10. Kagiso Rabada 11. Arshdeep Singh
