Rajasthan Royals beat Kings XI Punjab by nine wickets and still had the lukury of five overs to spare. Such was the ferocity of the Rajasthan Royals batsmen that they made mince-meat of all the Punjab bowlers. Kings XI Punjab won the toss and elected to bat at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium at Jaipur on Wednesday.
Bisla and Jayawardane opened the innings and after four overs they were 30 for 1 with Bisla being caught by Fazal bowled Watson for 20 runs. Sangakara could not contribute much to the total and was out for 9 runs. After 10 overs they were 86 for 2.
Yuvraj played some good shots and slammed three sixes and Kings XI were 103 for 2 in the 11th over and were looking good to reach 170 plus at that stage. But that was not to be and Yuvraj soon played on and was bowled by Dole for 28 runs.
Jayawardane played the best innings amongst Kings XI batsmen. He is best against the spinners. He got a life when he was dropped by Dole off Pathan at the deep square leg boundry in the 10th over when he was at 36. He topped scored for the team and was out caught Warne at second slip bowled Dole for 44.
Bopara was run out for 8. Shane Watson bowled the excellent 17th over and gave away only two runs. In the last 5 overs Kings XI Punjab did not score any boundry.
For the Rajasthan Royals Trivedi bagged 2-22. The total score of 153 runs was looked very easy for Rajasthan Royals to overhaul.
In reply to the Kings XI Punjab score, Micheal Lumb slammed a quickfire 83 runs off just 43 balls to hurry up the proceedings in defeating the Kings XI Punjab who had put on a mediocre total of 153. Lumb hit two towering sixes and 16 fours and was ably supported by Naman Ojha who contributed 44 runs (not out) which helped Rajasthan Royals to register an emphatic win and beat Kings XI Punjab by nine wickets with five overs to spare.
Lumb was ferocious from the word go but in the fourth over he went beserk and mauled Theron for one six and three fours. Naman Ojha also started dictating his script and was amongst the boundaries. Rajasthan had scored 65 runs in the first five overs.
Sangakkara shuffled his bowlers around but was of no use. None of them could make any dent in the well-set batsmen. Lumb swept the spinners with ease and was not hesitant to show his power against the fast bowlers. It was such a massacre by Lumb that none of the bowlers got any breathing space and the score went past the century in just 9 overs. He was finally caught by Chawla off Bopara for 83 runs.
For Rajasthan Royals, Siddharth Trivedi and Aditya Dole got two wickets each, while Shane Watson got one wicket for 19 runs. The 100 for the team came up in the ninth over when Irfan was battered for four fours, and Lumb was also nearing his century which he was unlucky to miss. Ojha finished off the game with the help of Yusuf Pathan in the 15th over.
M.J. Lumb was declared the Man of the match.
Ravi Matah.