Kings XI Punjab won the toss and decided to field against Rajasthan Royals at the PCA Stadium Mohali on Wednesday. While Rajasthan retained the same line-up of the previous match, Punjab had brought in Sreesanth to strengthen their pace attack. The pitch at the PCA stadium had a lot of grass on top and was considered to be helpful to the seamers Sresaanth and Irfan Pathan who opened the bowling for Kings XI Punjab. Punjab’s decision to field made perfect sense in conditions favourable for bowling early on. Sreesanth and Irfan Pathan, managed to beat the outside edge on more than one occasion.
An interesting occurance of the match was that Irfan Pathan dropped his brother Yusaf Pathan when on 15, but this lapse did not prove costly.
Kumar Sangakkara’s decision to field first was taken keeping the dew factor on the ground after the first innings. Micheal Lumb and Naman Ojha gave a solid start to the Rajasthan innings. They lost both their openers Naman Ojha for 13 (c. Srivaastava b Sreesanth) and Lumb for 41 st. Sangakara b Piyush Chawla. Fazal contributed 45 runs and Rajasthan Royals could muster 183 for 5 in the allotted 20 overs. Rajasthan Royals set a target of 184 runs for Kings XI Punjab. AC Voges’ quick-fire 24-ball 45 runs enabled Rajasthan to put a good total.
In reply thereto Kings XI Punjab batted well in the initial stages and scored 102 for 2 in the first 10 overs. Thereafter they lost wickets at regular intervals and none of their batsmen applied themselves to salvage the situation. Other contributors to the Kings XI Punjab score were Bopara25, Sangakara 29, Bisla 35 and Jayawardane 23. Kings XI Punjab were all out for 152 runs in 19.1 overs and Rajasthan Royals won the match by 31 runs.
The award for the maximum sixes Manvendra Bisla
Man of the match award went to Adam Voges.
Ravi Matah