Rajasthan Royals moved a step closer to the semifinal berth after overcoming Kings XI Punjab by nine wickets at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Wednesday.
Some poor bowling and equally bad fielding from Punjab helped Royals cause of reaching the target of 154. With this win Rajasthan also moved to third place in the points table with twelve points in eleven games and made the contest of grabbing a semifinal spot even more interesting.
For the home side, Michael Lumb played a scintillating knock of 83 runs in just 43 deliveries while Naman Ojha complimented his opening partner, with a well crafted innings of 44 off 37 balls.
All the Punjab bowlers paid a price for bowling on both sides of the wicket. Especially, S Sreesanth, who opened the bowling for Kings, looked completely out of sort. He leaked runs on every side of the ground and also bowled three no balls.
Earlier, astute captaincy by Shane Warne helped Rajasthan Royals restrict Kings XI Punjab to 153/6 in their innings.
Warne, who asked Aditya Dole to bowl the twelfth over, took crucial wickets of Yuvraj Singh (28 off 16 balls) and Mahela Jayawardene (44 from 33 balls), and put the brakes in Kings’ innings, who were at 103/2 at the end of eleven overs.
For Royals, Siddharth Trivedi was the pick of the bowlers with two wickets for 22 runs while the other medium pacer Dole also chipped in with two wickets.
None of the batsmen, except Jayawardene and Yuvraj could make a mark for the Kings. Only Irfan Pathan hit few blows at the end of their innings and took the score above 150.
In reply, Lumb looked in tremendous touch from the outset, hitting nine fours and a six in the first 22 balls he faced, hitting Juan Theron for 20 runs in his first over. Naman Ojha too bated with ease, with some beautifully timed shots off Ramesh Powar.
Lumb reached to his fifty in 28 balls with ten fours and a six and continued punishing Kings’ bowlers. He finally holed out at deep mid wicket to Piyush Chawla off Ravi Bopara, but set the perfect platform for Yousuf Pathan(21from 13 balls) to take his side home in 15 overs.
Some poor bowling and equally bad fielding from Punjab helped Royals cause of reaching the target of 154. With this win Rajasthan also moved to third place in the points table with twelve points in eleven games and made the contest of grabbing a semifinal spot even more interesting.
For the home side, Michael Lumb played a scintillating knock of 83 runs in just 43 deliveries while Naman Ojha complimented his opening partner, with a well crafted innings of 44 off 37 balls.
All the Punjab bowlers paid a price for bowling on both sides of the wicket. Especially, S Sreesanth, who opened the bowling for Kings, looked completely out of sort. He leaked runs on every side of the ground and also bowled three no balls.
Earlier, astute captaincy by Shane Warne helped Rajasthan Royals restrict Kings XI Punjab to 153/6 in their innings.
Warne, who asked Aditya Dole to bowl the twelfth over, took crucial wickets of Yuvraj Singh (28 off 16 balls) and Mahela Jayawardene (44 from 33 balls), and put the brakes in Kings’ innings, who were at 103/2 at the end of eleven overs.
For Royals, Siddharth Trivedi was the pick of the bowlers with two wickets for 22 runs while the other medium pacer Dole also chipped in with two wickets.
None of the batsmen, except Jayawardene and Yuvraj could make a mark for the Kings. Only Irfan Pathan hit few blows at the end of their innings and took the score above 150.
In reply, Lumb looked in tremendous touch from the outset, hitting nine fours and a six in the first 22 balls he faced, hitting Juan Theron for 20 runs in his first over. Naman Ojha too bated with ease, with some beautifully timed shots off Ramesh Powar.
Lumb reached to his fifty in 28 balls with ten fours and a six and continued punishing Kings’ bowlers. He finally holed out at deep mid wicket to Piyush Chawla off Ravi Bopara, but set the perfect platform for Yousuf Pathan(21from 13 balls) to take his side home in 15 overs.
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