Punjab Kings hold their nerve in a last-over thriller against Rajasthan Royals as they climb up to the 2nd spot on the points table. Shikhar Dhawan’s delightful 86 runs in 56 deliveries and Nathan Ellis 4- wicket haul helped Punjab Kings defeat Rajasthan Royals by 5 runs at Guwahati.
Punjab Kings batting first got off to a flying start courtesy of Prabhsimran’s fearless batting in the powerplay.
The youngster from Punjab came in with the clear intention of attacking Rajasthan bowlers early in the innings. The pitch had very little assistance to the fast bowlers.
Prabhsimran played some delightful shots entertaining the crowd at Guwahati. He was striking the ball cleanly, holding his shape. He smashed 28 balls fifty as Punjab Kings scored 63/0 in the powerplay.
Jos Butler’s blinder of a catch dismissed Prabhsimran as he was gone for 60 runs. Inform batsman Bhanula Rajapaksa got injured by a hit from Shikhar Dhawan and left the field.
Shikhar Dhawan after a run-ball start to his innings paired up with Jitesh Sharma accelerating the scoring rate. The pair added 64 runs in 34 balls. Jitesh Sharma scored 27 runs in 16 balls.
Shikhar Dhawan went on to score 86 runs in 56 balls powering Punjab Kings to 197/4 in their 20 overs. Jason Holder was the best performer for RR with figures of 2/29 in 4 overs.
Nathan Ellis Shines with a four-fer
Rajasthan Royals chasing a huge total of 198 sent R Ashwin at the top of the order to open the innings alongside Jaiswal. Arshdeep.Singh was quick to strike, providing Punjab King with the perfect start by dismissing both the openers inside the powerplay.
Jos Butler batting at no 3 scored 19 runs in 11 before he was racked up by Nathan Ellis with his pace as Butler gave a simple return catch to the bowler.
RR captain Sanju Samson looked in great touch, Samson pounced onto anything short, top full scoring 42 runs in 25 balls. Nathan Ellis comes back for his 2nd over dismissing Samson.
Rajasthan Royals lost their way in the 10-15 over phase after a good start. Devdutt Padikkal Struggled to time the ball and get going. Padikkal scored 21 runs in 26 balls striking at 80.77.
Nathan Eliis in his 3rd spell dismissed Riyan Parag & Devdutt Padikkal in the space of six balls. Rajasthan Royals lost their momentum and it was down to Shimron Hetmeyer to win it for RR.
Youngster Dhruv Jurel coming in as an impact player played a handy knock of 32 runs in 15 balls. Hetmeyer tried his best to win the game for his team scoring 36 runs in 18 balls striking at 200. Both batters failed to get the elevation and smash over the top against Sam Curran as he bowls low full tosses which are hard to hit.
A high scoring thriller ending in favour of Punjab Kings. The win over Rajasthan Royals in game 8 of Tata IPL 2023 puts Punjab Kings at the 2nd spog in the points table.
Nathan Ellis was awarded Player of the match for his match winning bowling efforts picking up four key wickets and ending with match figures of 4/30.
