Royals ride Buttler’s knock to stay alive, Rahul’s 95 in vain
Royals bowlers respond brilliantly after England keeper’s 82 to pull off 15run victory over KXIP
JAIPUR: KL Rahul’s brilliant 95* went in vain for Kings XI Punjab as Rajasthan Royals put in a disciplined bowling performance to stay alive in the race for the playoffs with a 15-run win at the Sawai Mansingh stadium on Tuesday.
Rahul’s knock was the saving grace for Kings XI Punjab’s batting, which floundered on a pitch assisting spin. After restricting Royals to 158/8, KXIP started off in disastrous fashion when Chris Gayle (1) was stumped off K Gowtham. The Karnataka off-spinner followed up by bowling Ravichandran Ashwin (0) through the gate after the KXIP skipper at promoted himself.
Rahul, who struck a matchwinning fifty against Royals in the previous game in Indore, hit 11 fours and two sixes in his 70-ball knock. He struck two fours off Ben Stokes in the fifth over but Kings XI Punjab lost wickets at regular intervals.
The batsman capitalised on some loose deliveries and reached his fifty by pulling medium pacer Anureet Singh to deep mid wicket. Although Rahul struck boundaries at will towards the end, lack of contribution from the top order made the chase difficult after Rajasthan Royals’ total was set up by Jos Buttler’s third consecutive fifty.
Opting to bat, Rajasthan Royals made a good start with Buttler hammering two consecutive fours off Marcus Stoinis in the first over before hammering Axar Patel for four and six over extra cover in the second over.
Despite losing two quick wickets, Buttler got support from Sanju Samson. The 27-year-old continued to bat aggressively, whacking Mohit Sharma for three boundaries and creaming two boundaries off Andrew Tye. Buttler notched up his fourth IPL fifty off 27 balls by nudging Ashwin to short fine leg for single.
The wicket of Samson slowed down Buttler, and on 79, he miscued a tossed up delivery from Ashwin only to be dropped by Akshdeep Nath at long off. The England keeper did not capitalise on the life and Mujeeb struck when he had Buttler stumped.