Punjab Kings (PBKS) beat Rajasthan Royals (RR) by 5 runs to maintain their winning run in IPL 2023 campaign at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati. Riding on sublime knocks from Shikhar Dhawan (86 off 56 balls) and Prabhsimran Singh (60 off 34 balls), PBKS posted a massive total of 197/4 in the allotted 20 overs.
On the other hand, Rajasthan were never really in the chase as they were reduced to a score of 26/2 in the fourth over.
Shimron Hetmyer (36 off 18 balls) and Impact Player Dhruv Jurel(32 balls off 15 balls) tried their best, but couldn’t match up with the increasing run rate. Skipper Sanju Samson was the top scorer with 42 off 25 balls.
Toss Details
Earlier, Samson had won the toss and opted to field first. The decision backfired as Singh and Dhawan went after the bowlers. KM Asif was especially hit hard as PBKS raced to 50/0 in the 4.2 overs. Samson kept on changing his bowlers, but nothing worked.
Successful in the last match, NZ speedster Trent Boult couldn’t make any impact either. On the other hand, Yuzvendra Chahal was also among the runs.
Match Proceedings
Meanwhile, PBKS made use of the pedestrian bowling on a belter of a pitch. And Dhawan took over as Singh lost out on a big score. After a run-a-ball knock, Dhawan improvised and started to play unorthodox shots. He reached to his fifty in 36 balls after Bhanuka Rajapaksa was retired hurt. The Sri Lankan was hit by one of the ferocious shots from Dhawan which ensured he took no further part in the match.
Nevertheless, Dhawan compensated as he quickly raced to next 30 runs in next 20 balls. By the time he was dismissed, he had hit 3 maximums and 9 boundaries in his innings.
PBKS had set a massive total of 197.
In reply, RR were never in the chase. Jos Buttler was demoted down the order as he had hurt his finger. This meant that Ravichandran Ashwin came out to open with Yashasvi Jaiswal. The experiment failed as Ashwin was dismissed for a duck and RR were reduced to 26/2.
Result
Moreover, even Buttler didn’t look like himself, failing to time the ball. He was dismissed for 19 off 11 balls. From this point on, Samson tried to bail RR out, but Devdutt Padikkal at the other end ate up too many balls.
With run rate increasing, the task fell to Hetmyer and Impact player Jurel. Both tried their best and reduced the deficit, but a PBKS win was just a formality.
Australia Nathan Ellis was pick of the bowler as he went onto pick four wickets for 30 runs. He was adjudged Player of the Match.