Chasing a huge target of 180 runs, Rajasthan Royal (RR) just managed to score 163/8 in their 20 allotted overs against Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), thus losing by 16 runs at Mohali, Punjab on Friday.
For RR, James Faulkner top scored with 35 runs, while Brad Hodge and Sanju Samson contributed 31 and 30 runs to the total of .
For KXIP, Akshar Patel patel was pick of the bowlers picking up three wickets, while Rishi Dhawan and Karanveer Singh each took two wickets. Balaji took the remaining wicket to fall.
Having being invited to bat first, Kings XI Punjab postred a huge score of 179/4 against Rajasthan Royals in their 20 allotted overs.
For KXIP, Shaun Marsh top scored with 40 runs, while David Miller, Wridhhiman Saha, and George Bailey chipped in with 29, 27, and 26 runs respectively as some late hitting from Miller and Bailey took Punkab to a challenging total of 179.
For RR, Rahul Tewatia, Vikramjeet Malik, and James Faulkner picked up a wicket each, while the fourht wicket was a run-out. Manan Vohra was the unlucky batsman.
Earlier, Rajasthan Royals captain Shane Watson won the toss and elected to field first in Mohali. George Bailey, on the other hand, also would have done the same as well.
On to the team news now where Rajasthan Royals made as many as four changes to thier line-up from the previous game against Mumbai Indians which they lost. They made four changes of which a couple of first-choice players like Ajinkya Rahane and Pravin Tambe returned to first team action.
Apart from Ajinkya Rahane and Pravin Tambe, who took places from Unmukt Chand and Ankit Sharma respectively, Royals made a surprising changes as Vikramjeet Malik, playing his first game of the season, and legspinner Rahul Tewatia were brought in place of Rajat Bhatia and Dhawal Kulkarni.
Kings XI Punjab, on the other hand, brought back David Miller as they gave a much needed rest to Glenn Maxwell. The other change to their line-up was the return of L Balaji, who was preferred over Sandeep Sharma. The third change was, legspinner Karanveer Singh who made his IPL debut, in place of Shivam Sharma.
That made it a whopping three legspinners on a green pitch. Having said that, there had been little seam movement in the previous matches at the ground despite the grass, as the surface is expected to be dry beneath.
Kings XI Punjab 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Manan Vohra, 3 David Miller, 4 Shaun Marsh, 5 George Bailey (capt), 6 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 7 Beuran Hendricks, 8 Rishi Dhawan, 9 Akshar Patel, 10 Karanveer Singh, 11 L Balaji
Rajasthan Royals 1 Karun Nair, 2 Ajinkya Rahane, 3 Sanju Samson (wk), 4 Shane Watson (capt), 5 Stuart Binny, 6 Brad Hodge, 7 Vikramjeet Malik, 8 James Faulkner, 9 Kevon Cooper, 10 Rahul Tewatia, 11 Pravin Tambe