IPL 2018: Highlights of Match 40 & Points Table as of 8th May

IPL 2018: Highlights of Match 40 & Points Table as of 8th May

One IPL match was held today. The Match Wise Highlights are appended below the Points Table.

Vs

Match 40:Match Basics

Rajasthan Royals 1st innings total:  158/8 (20 Overs, RR: 7.9)

Performers:

·         Batting: Jose Buttler 82 off 58 balls, Sanju Samson 22 off 18 balls.

·         Bowling: Marcus Stoinis 1/15 in 2 overs, AJ Tye 4/34 in 4 overs, Mujeeb Ur Rehman 2/21 in 4 overs.

Target:  159 runs from 20 overs.

Kings XI Punjab 2nd innings total: 143/7 (20 Overs, RR: 7.15)

Performers:

·         Batting:  KL Rahul 95* off 70 balls.

·         Bowling: Jofra Archer 1/32 in 4 overs, K Gowtham 2/12 in 3 overs, Ish Sodhi 1/14 in 4 overs.

Result:   Rajasthan Royals won by 15 runs.

Man of the Match: Jos Buttler

Highlights:

·         Having lost three consecutive matches, the Royals needed their big guns to fire if they wanted to win this match against strong KXIP.

·         Playing at their home ground Rajasthan Royals won the toss and elected to bat first on a pitch that was going to favor bowlers.

·        But, despite this Royals got off to a decent start as Jose Buttler continued his superior batting form. But KXIP got rewards off their bowling as they got regular wickets in the first 7 overs.

·         After Royals had lost 2 wickets inside 7 overs, Buttler and Samson looked threatening as they shared a 53-run partnership.

·         This was the time when Royals had to go berserk and go for a bigger target after Mujeeb got Samson, Tye ripped ripped through the Royals batting line-up to restrict them to 158 runs in 20 overs.

·         Apart from Jose Buttler no Royals batsman was able to score a fifty and all this was due to KXIP’s captain R. Ashwin’s brilliant captaincy.

·        So, now KXIP had to score 159 runs on a difficult batting pitch. The 2^nd innings started as KL Rahul and Chris Gayle took their mark on the crease.

·         A quick start was expected from these two openers but it was a bowling pitch and Royals took full use of it as K Gowtham struck twice in the 3^rd over to send KXIP 2 wickets down.

·         But the Royals were not finished yet as the young Jofra Archer took the wicket of Karun Nair in the next over and KXIP were now surely in trouble.

·         This was the time when KXIP had to hold their ground and keep wickets in hand, but the opposite of that happened as regular wickets fell till the 14^th over KXIP’s last hope became Marcus Stoinis and KL Rahul.

·         But the high run-rate combined with Rahane’s excellent use of bowlers was not letting the two batsmen to get away with the match.

·         Royals, knew that there was no room for error and they had to win this match so they put their foot on the gas and bowled a lot of dot balls in the death overs as KXIP lost the match by 15 runs.

·         Apart from KL Rahul, who remained unbeaten on 95* and single handedly scored 66.4% of the team runs, no other batsman was even able to score more than 15 runs.

·         Nevertheless, Royals won the match and now have a definite chance at going through the play-offs but they still need to win their remaining fixtures to do so.

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