Rajasthan Royals gamers have a good time a wicket throughout the Indian Premier League 2024 match in opposition to Punjab Kings in Mullanpur on April 13, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar
Rajasthan Royals bowlers underneath Avesh Khan and Keshav Maharaj exploited a sticky pitch to the hilt to restrict Punjab Kings to an underwhelming 147 for eight of their IPL match in Mullanpur on April 13.
Pacer Avesh (2/34) and left-arm spinner Maharaj (2/23) didn’t permit any respiratory house to Kings’ batters after Rajasthan skipper Sanju Samson opted to discipline first.
Ashutosh Sharma (31, 16b), Jitesh Sharma (29, 24b) and Liam Livingstone (21, 14b) tried to power the tempo however Punjab wanted greater than these fairly little cameos.
But the Kings had a moderately fast begin to their innings with 26 runs coming within the first three overs as Atharva Taide, who got here in for injured skipper Shikhar Dhawan, hammered a few fours off pacer Kuldeep Sen.
However, the brakes had been quickly utilized as Taide’s mistimed pull off pacer Avesh Khan ended within the fingers of Sen contained in the circle.
Thereafter the Punjab batters struggled to muster any kind of momentum on a pitch that gripped a bit, particularly for left-arm spinner Maharaj and leg-spinner Chahal.
However, a slice of credit score must also go to veteran pacer Trent Boult who conceded simply 15 runs in his three energy play overs, a stage when the pitch was nonetheless nice for batting.
The final three energy play overs might solely fetch 10 runs for Kings as they ended that passage with a modest 38 for one.
In the subsequent 5 overs, the hosts struggled to hit even one boundary as they laboured to 53 for 4 in 10 overs, shedding Jonny Bairstow, stand-in-skipper Sam Curran and Prabhsimran Singh, all consumed by the mix of a gradual deck and correct spinners.
Curran’s dismissal was essentially the most telltale instance of that.
The left-hander didn’t impart energy or timing to his pull off Maharaj as the ball obtained even slower after pitching. Dhruv Jurel latched on to a tumbling catch whereas working in from deep mid-wicket.
Their greatest hope on the day might have been the range-hitting capability of in-form Shahshank Singh however a feeble pull off Sen couldn’t progress past Jurel at mid-wicket.
With the cream of top-order again within the hut with none important contribution, the PBKS required some hefty hand from Livingstone and Jitesh to get to even a par rating.
Sharma confirmed some intent too, clobbering Chahal for a gorgeously timed six over additional over, and later despatched Sen for a six to the straight fence earlier than getting out to Avesh.
Livingstone, who creamed Sen for a six and 4 off successive balls by mid-wicket, and Ashutosh, who smoked Avesh for 2 sixes within the nineteenth over, helped PBKS add 61 runs within the final 5 overs, however their effort got here a wee bit late.
