CHENNAI: IT was always going to be a contest of calculations. Both Punjab Kings and Rajasthan Royals are on 12 points and have to win by a massive margin to get past the other two teams — Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore — that are on 14 points. After which, they will have to pray to the heavens, hoping that both MI and RCB lose their respective final league games.
Having won the toss, RR opted to bowl first as they already have a better NRR and knowing what to chase in how many overs will aid them in preparing better. After all, they have the firepower in the top five to do so. On the other hand, Shikhar Dhawan seemed pragmatic saying that they just want to finish the season on a high.
With both teams getting what they wanted at the toss, it all boiled down to who set the tone first. And Trent Boult did exactly that taking a diving catch on his follow-through to dismiss Prabhsimran Singh in the very first over. He almost took another in the same over to get rid of Atharva Taide, but the right-hander, with Shikhar Dhawan, took the attack to Sandeep Sharma, who did not help the case with a no ball off his very first delivery.
They raced to 38/1 in 3.3 overs, but Navdeep Saini who came in as a change-up for Sandeep dismissed Taide with a short-of-length delivery. With Adam Zampa trapping Dhawan and Saini cleaning up the dangerous Liam Livingstone, RR was back on top. PBKS were down to 53/4 after seven overs. Even as Zampa and Yuzvendra Chahal tried to keep things tight, Sanju Samson went back to Sandeep who was hit for a couple of sixes by Jitesh Sharma. That shifted the momentum towards PBKS as Sam Curran hit the boundaries of Chahal at the other end.
RR was letting go of the control they had with the ball as Jitesh hit Saini for a four, six and another four off consecutive deliveries in the fourteenth over before getting out on the fifth delivery. Out of nowhere, Punjab had managed to get to 115/5 after 14 overs. In came M Shahrukh Khan, whom the Punjab team management has been batting at No. 7 or lower throughout the season. Along with Curran, he took the game deep. The duo added only 26 runs between overs 14-18, setting themselves up for a counterattack. With no R Ashwin, who was out with a back spasm, and Sandeeep Sharma bowled out, Samson went back to Chahal for the penultimate over of the innings.
The TN batter was ready. He sent the leg-spinner to the midwicket boundary and went one better on the second delivery, hitting Chahal over the ropes. Curran went berserk, too, smashing two sixes and a four off the last three deliveries. When Boult came on, the momentum was with Punjab as the duo hit 22 runs in the final over, taking PBKS to 187/5.
In reply, RR chased it down in 19.4 overs, moving to fifth place in the points table. Now, they will have to wait and see if things go their way as several teams have to lose for RR to get into the play-offs.
Brief scores
PBKS 187/5 in 20 ovs (Curran 49 n.o, Shahrukh 42 n.o; Saini 3/40) lost to RR 189/6 in 19.4 ovs (Jasiwal 50, Padikkal 51).
