Who won yesterday's IPL match? Skipper Sam Curran starred, hitting a well-paced fifty and taking two wickets, as Punjab Kings handed Rajasthan Royals a five-wicket defeat in the Indian Premier League 2024 match on Wednesday, May 15. (As It Happened|Scorecard)
The target was a mere 145, but Kings made heavy weather of it on a sluggish track but Curran (63 not out, 41b, 5x4, 3x6) had a calm head and skills to lift them to their fifth win of the season. PBKS made 145/5 in 18.5 overs.
The match started with Rajasthan Royals winning the toss and opting to bat first against Punjab Kings.
Rajasthan Royals in their great form, started with losing the first wicket with just four runs, after 0.4 overs. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Kohler-Cadmore opened for Rajasthan Royals. Jaiswal hits a boundary off Sam Curran to start the over. The next two deliveries were dots as Curran made a comeback. And just like that, Curran clean bowled the batter, who was playing it onto the stumps.
Sanju Samson chose to bat in the first game at the Barsapara Stadium this IPL. After four overs, the game was evenly poised, with RR at 31 for 1. Curran got Yashasvi Jaiswal bowled off the fourth ball of the day, following a boundary driven through cover off the first ball.
Samson hit three boundaries off his first eight balls, including a punch off Arshdeep Singh with the full face of the bat. Meanwhile, at the other end, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, who replaced Jos Buttler, had started rather slowly.
PBKS bowled ten consecutive dot balls across three overs, starting from the sixth over. Ellis and Harshal Patel used variations effectively, while Rahul Chahar found turn. Facing two right-hand batters, Parag and R Ashwin, at the crease, Curran brought in left-arm spinner Harpreet Brar for the ninth over. However, Ashwin managed a streaky boundary, scoring ten runs off the over.
After 11 overs, RR had only reached 68 runs on the board when Ashwin began counterattacking. He hit Chahar for a six over midwicket, followed by a reverse sweep and a lofted shot over covers for four. However, Arshdeep ended Ashwin's aggressive innings in the next over by having him caught at deep point, after a quickfire 28 off 19 balls.
PBKS kept Parag away from the strike throughout the entire 19th over. However, in the 20th over, Harshal Patel dismissed Parag for 48 with his trademark dipping, slow full toss. With this wicket, the Purple Cap changed hands again, with Harshal finishing the day on 22 wickets, two ahead of Jasprit Bumrah.
Prabhsimran Singh and Jonny Bairstow opened for Punjab with Trent Boult delivering the new ball. It started with a dot before Singh edged one for 2 runs. He swung at the next delivery, sending it straight down the ground for a boundary. However, he was dismissed off the next ball, edging it high in the air, and Yuzvendra Chahal took the catch.
With the game it, looked like the game is tilting towards RR. However, Jitesh and Curran prevented RR from taking control of the game just yet. Jitesh hit his second ball for six, and Curran managed a lucky boundary off the bottom edge from Chahal. They kept the scoreboard ticking with singles and occasionally found the boundary. Curran swiped Chahal wide of long-on, swatted Ashwin to deep extra cover, and whipped Boult behind square, all in consecutive overs.
With six overs left, the required run rate had risen to 9.33 per over. Both Jitesh and Curran then hit a six each off Ashwin. However, Jitesh was caught off Chahal in the next over. PBKS then introduced Ashutosh Sharma as an Impact Sub, and the match quickly came to an end.
Ashutosh hit Avesh for four, and then Curran and Ashutosh smashed three sixes in the space of five balls to level the scores and seal victory shortly after.
Updated Points Table After RR Vs PBKS
With this match RR have now lost four in a row after winning as many on the bounce to hurt their chances of a top-two finish.
