Rajasthan Royals (RR) suffered a very close five-run loss to the Punjab Kings (PBKS) in their second Indian Premier League (IPL) match at the Barsapara Stadium in Guwahati on Wednesday, April 6. Late fireworks from Shimron Hetmyer and IPL debutant Dhruv Jurel took the team close to the required target of 198 but fell just a few runs short.
The saga of close contests between the two sides continued, with the last three matches between the two teams going down to the wire. In fact, the RR skipper Sanju Samson shared a hilarious tweet with the opponent captain Shikhar Dhawan.
The tweet was captioned “Paaji, har baar itne tight matches kyun?” with a photo of Shikhar Dhawan and Samson after the game.
It was a great batting performance from both sides, led by the Punjab openers and the Rajasthan Royals middle-order batters.
Dhawan played a captain's knock for PBKS as none of the RR bowlers could trouble the stylish southpaw once he was set. He remained unbeaten on 86 off just 56 balls, while Nathan Ellis’ maiden IPL four-fer kept the RR batters in check in the second innings. Dhawan's unbeaten score for Punjab was complemented by the other opener Prabhsimran Singh, who hit 60 off 34 runs.
The Royals will be guilty of some decisions which clearly backfired for the side. They chose to send in R Ashwin to open the batting, ahead of Jos Buttler (who injured himself while fielding) or even Shimron Hetmyer, who was effective at the back end of the innings. The West Indian came out and added 36 off 18 balls, stitching a partnership of 61 off 26 balls with Impact Player Dhruv Jurel, who scored 32 runs off just 15 balls.
With RR needing 16 runs off the last over, Sam Curran was given the responsibility to prove why he is the IPL's most expensive player ever, and he did it with aplomb. Curran eventually ran Hetmyer out for 36 (18 balls), bringing an end to a thrilling partnership with Jurel and securing a second victory on the trot for Punjab.
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(PC: @IamSanjuSamson)
