Rajasthan Royals beat Punjab Kings by two runs

Rajasthan bowler does the star turn to beat Punjab

DUBAI: Rajasthan Royals pulled off an incredible win over Punjab Kings in the IPL here on Tuesday. Needing four of the last over, Rajasthan’s Kartik Tyagi kept his head giving away just one run while taking two wickets to bowl his team to a sensational two-run win.

Punjab only has itself to blame for gifting the match on a platter after seemingly being in control of the proceedings for the majority of the match. Both Mayank and Rahul went about their task with gay abandon punishing anything loose on offer to set the scoreboard racing in pursuit of 186. At the completion of powerplay, Punjab was sitting pretty at 49.

Mayank was initially slow to start with but soon exploded dealing in fours and sixes as he notched up an exhilarating half-century. In all, he slammed seven boundaries and two towering sixes in his innings of 67 (43b) before he fell to Rahul Tewatia. Rahul looked composed as always during his knock of 49 (33b, 4x4, 2x6).

Rajasthan finally managed to remove both the set batsmen in quick succession. Earlier, opener Yashasvi Jaiswal (49) and Mahipal Lomror (43) starred with the bat but Punjab pulled things back in the rear end to bowl out Rajasthan for 185.

Mohammed Shami claimed three as he and Arshdeep restricted Rajasthan inside the 200mark after it was going hammer and tongs at one stage. Put into bat, Jaiswal was part of two vital partnerships, adding 54 with his new opening partner Evin Lewis (36) and then sharing another 48 off 28 balls with Liam Livingstone (25).

Lomror then smashed his way to a 17-ball 43, studded with four sixes and two fours. Left-arm pacer Arshdeep then produced the breakthrough, deceiving Lewis with a slower ball as Agarwal took a fine low catch.

BRIEF SCORES: Rajasthan Royals 185 in 20 overs (Y Jaiswal 49, M Lomror 43, A Singh 5/32, Md. Shami 3/21) bt Punjab Kings 183/4 in 20 overs (M Agarwal 67, KL Rahul 49)