Punjab Kings have defeated Rajasthan Royals by five wickets in the 65th match of the Indian Premier League season, which took place at Barsapara Stadium. The star of the match for PBKS was undoubtedly captain Sam Curran, who showed his class in all three departments.
Avesh Khan's over turned out to be the game-changer for the Sanju Samson-led RR as the former Delhi pacer dismissed Rilee Rossouw and Shashank Singh in the sixth over of the second innings, reviving RR's hope of a comeback.
When it seemed the game was slipping out of PBKS's grasp, Curran took charge with a gritty half-century and guided his side home. Curran, partnering with Jitesh Sharma, put on a critical 63-run partnership, stabilizing PBKS's innings and taking the team home.
The PBKS bowling unit was on fire from the start as Sam Curran dismissed the young Yashasvi Jaiswal in the opening over. The subsequent bowling effort kept RR in check and didn't allow them to get away.
RR's Riyan Parag did the best in his capacity, scoring an impressive 48 runs. But it wasn't enough, and RR buckled. Even the 50-run partnership between Riyan Parag and Ravichandran Ashwin wasn't enough to get RR out of jail, though it did add runs to the total.
RR, hence, suffers its fourth defeat in a row. With a faltering defeat against table-toppers KKR, it is most likely to slip out of the window to win second place, with SRH and CSK maintaining a better run rate than them.
In a nutshell, Rajasthan Royals scored 144/9 in 20 overs (Riyan Parag 48, Ravichandran Ashwin 28; Sam Curran 2-24, Rahul Chahar 2-26), which Punjab Kings successfully chased down to 145/5 in 18.5 overs (Sam Curran 63 not out, Rilee Rossouw 22; Avesh Khan 2-28, Yuzvendra Chahal 2-31), winning the game by five wickets.
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