Introduction:
Second consecutive defeat for Punjab Kings in IPL 2024. Punjab Kings was scheduled to play the 27th match of the IPL 2024 against Rajasthan Royals on Saturday and Rajasthan Royals won the match with absolute ease. Punjab Kings scored only 147 in this match which is the third-lowest in this season. With this defeat, they have lost 4 matches out of the 6 matches they have played till now. They have won only 2 matches. Punjab Kings are holding 7th position with an NRR of -0.218. Well, the league is not going well for Punjab at all. Let’s focus on the match to get a clear view. Read this blog & stay connected with Cricfeverr.com to get more match highlights like this.
What are the match details?
Punjab Kings and Rajasthan Royals were scheduled to play the 20th match of the IPL 2024. The venue of the match was Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium and the match was scheduled at 7:30 PM.
The toss story:
Rajasthan Royals have won the toss and skipper Sanju Samson has decided to field first. During the toss, we got to know that Shikhar Dhawan wouldn’t play in this match.
PBKS skipper Sam Curran shared that Dhawan would not play in this game.
“Shikhar picked up a niggle, that’s why I’m here. We would have bowled first as well, but we’ll now have to put the runs on the board. The balance has been good, we’d have liked to win a few more games, but the middle-order looks good, especially Shashank and Ashutosh. We’ve got exciting players and plenty of quality. We’ve Atharva Taide coming in for Shikhar tonight, Livingstone is back as well,” Curran said at the toss.
Royals’ skipper Sanju Samson said at the toss, “We’ll bowl first, it looks like a decent wicket to bowl first. We’ve made a target to not think about the goal, focus on the process, work on building the team and we’re doing well. A lot of challenges outside as well, we’ve many players missing from tonight’s game. 90% of the game was good – Jos isn’t 100%, Ash bhai is having a niggle, so Rovman and Tanush Kotian come into the XI.”
Match highlights:
Rajasthan Royals have won the toss and skipper Sanju Samson has decided to field first.
We thought that we would see a good target. However, to much disappointment, Punjab Kings managed to score just 147 runs after losing 8 wickets. According to data, this is the third-lowest first-innings score in Indian Premier League 2024. Before this, Mumbai Indians scored 125/9 against RR at Wankhede stadium in Mumbai, while Kolkata Knight Riders scored 137/9 against Chennai Super Kings at Chepauk in Chennai.
The batting department of Punjab Kings was pretty disappointing. Only, Ashutosh Sharma scored 31 runs and Jitesh Sharma scored 29 runs and Liam Livingstone scored 21 runs. The rest of the players failed to make even 15 runs.
In the bowling department, Punjab’s Kagiso Rabada and Arshdeep Singh gave a fight and the rest of the players just surrendered.
The win was quite easy for RR and the match was almost one-sided. However, the last over was the most thriller part of the match. Hetmyer scored 10-ball 27* to take the Royals over the line with a ball to spare. Royals’ Dhruv Jurel became the first fielder to bag three catches in an IPL innings on two different occasions for Rajasthan Royals. He had done it earlier against LSG in Jaipur this season.
Point table situation:
Rajasthan Royals is one of the most promising teams of this season. They have lost only one match in the whole league till now and they are holding the 1st position in the point table.
RR has 10 points and an NRR (Net Run Rate) of +0.767.
On the other hand, Punjab Kings is in the 7th position with only 4 points. They have lost 4 matches and won only 2 out of the 6 matches they have played so far.
Post-match scenario:
After this good chase, the captain of RR was happy.
“We had a few funny instances from last year and this year. But I am really happy that everyone is eager to go and catch. I would be very sad if people are just staying away and not catching it,” he said in the post-match presentation as the presenter was left in splits.
“It gets a bit tough actually – the stadium is full of noise and when people call, we are looking at the ball, we can’t look who is coming. I need to tell my fast bowlers that it’s a bit easier to catch with the gloves instead of hands,” he added.
Final words:
Well, this is not the first season that Punjab Kings has failed to utilize their talents. We believe that they will recover soon. Stay connected with Cricfeverr.com to get more match highlights like this.
