Picture Credit : BCCI
One of the biggest successes in this years’s IPL 2018, K L Rahul, once again smashed a classy unbeaten half-century to power his side Kings XI Punjab to a comfortable six wicket win over the Rajasthan Royals in Indore.
Chasing a modest 153 run target, Rahul brilliantly anchored Kings XI’s innings from start ill the finish, scoring 84 off just 54 balls with the help of seven boundaries and three sixes to guide his side home with eight balls to spare. Along with Aussie Marcus Stoinis (23 not out) shared unconquered 68 runs for the fifth wicket to comfortably take Kings XI past the winning margin and enable their side climb up to the third spot in the points table. Kings finished at 155 / 4 in 18.4 overs .
Earlier, Mujeeb led an impressive bowling display from Kings XI to restrict struggling Rajasthan to a modest 152 for nine.
Besides Mujeeb, Andrew Tye (2/24), Axar Patel (1/21), skipper Ravichandran Ashwin (1/30) and Ankit Rajpoot (1/37) were the other wicket-takers for Kings XI.
Jos Buttler starred for the Royals with the bat scoring scored 51 off 39 balls . But the other batsmen failed to deliver. This has been the problem for the Royals all along. Overseas players have not performed and this has hurt them badly. English all- rounder Ben Stokes once again fell cheaply for 12 .
Opener D’Arcy Short (2) and skipper Ajinkya Rahane (5) were dismissed early before Buttler and Sanju Samson (28) put on a 49 runs stand for the third wicket . But the duo soon fell and the innings simply crumbled . Shreyas Gopal at the end played a 16-ball 24-run cameo but the total was too less to defend given the Kings batting line- up. Coach and Mentor Shane Warne’s face at the dugout said it all. It has been a miserable campaign for the Royals. Poor batting , wrong selection, misfiring overseas stars, and aided by poor fielding.
Team owners would be gutted after they had spent a whopping Rs 12. 5 crore for Ben Stokes and Rs 11. 5 cr for Jaidev Unadkat.
