At the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday evening, a returning Yashasvi Jaiswal enthralled his home crowd in Rajasthan Royals colours. With a delightful exhibition of stroke play, he helped chase down Punjab Kings challenging total of 189 and consolidate RR’s position in the race for IPL playoffs. Follow IPL 2022 Coverage
Getting an opportunity to play his first game after over a month, the 20-year-old left-handed batter grabbed the opportunity to produce a match-winning 68 off 41 balls. Cameos from Jos Buttler and skipper Sanju Samson gave Royals a flying start before Jaiswal took control of the chase. Royals needed 49 off 34 balls when he got out, but Shimron Hetmyer took them over the line with six wickets and two balls to spare, scoring an unbeaten 31 off 16 balls.
Their first victory while chasing this season revived Royals’ campaign after two defeats and helped retain the third spot (14 points, 11 games) with a healthy net run rate of 0.326. Punjab Kings’ trend of winning and losing alternate matches has left them stuck on 10 points after 11 games. After their third loss in five games, things look tough for PBKS.
The defining phase for RR in the chase was when Jaiswal took control from the 11th over, hitting seven of his nine fours in that period before falling in the 15th over to PBKS’ most impressive bowler, pacer Arshdeep Singh. Jaiswal first hit two boundaries off Sandeep Sharma, following it with three off Rishi Dhawan before capping his knock with two off leg-spinner Rahul Chahar. After an opening partnership of 46 with Buttler, Jaiswal added 56 runs for the fourth wicket with Devdutt Padikkal, after coming together in the ninth over.
{{/usCountry}}The defining phase for RR in the chase was when Jaiswal took control from the 11th over, hitting seven of his nine fours in that period before falling in the 15th over to PBKS’ most impressive bowler, pacer Arshdeep Singh. Jaiswal first hit two boundaries off Sandeep Sharma, following it with three off Rishi Dhawan before capping his knock with two off leg-spinner Rahul Chahar. After an opening partnership of 46 with Buttler, Jaiswal added 56 runs for the fourth wicket with Devdutt Padikkal, after coming together in the ninth over.
{{/usCountry}}Padikkal’s 32-ball 31 may look slow, but he played according to the situation. With Jaiswal in full flow, he wisely played a supporting role and avoided taking undue risks that would have let the opposition back into the game.
Punjab Kings rode on opener Jonny Bairstow (56—40b, 8x4, 1x6), and fireworks from Jitesh Sharma (38*--18 b, 4x4, 2x6) and Liam Livingstone (22--14b, 1x4, 2x6) to post a formidable total.
But the way RR batters chased it down with ease showed that PBKS had ended up some 15 runs short on a good pitch at the Wankhede Stadium where dew wasn’t going to be a factor.
It was again their issues against spin that proved costly. Royals’ Yuzvendra Chahal (4-0-28-3) and R Ashwin (4-0-32-1) were superb. Bowling with guile and control, Chahal provided crucial breakthroughs to prevent PBKS batters from running away with the game after being set. The highlight was Chahal’s double strike in the 15th over. The leg-spinner got skipper Mayank Agarwal to hole out to long-on on 15. Two balls later, Chahal trapped Bairstow leg-before.
Chahal’s first wicket was the explosive Bhanuka Rajapaksa. The Sri Lankan batter launched Chahal over midwicket for six but fell trying to repeat it. The left-handed batter took on the spinner by skipping down the ground but Chahal cleverly slipped in one from the front of the hand to bowl him. Rajapaksa made 27 off 18 balls.
Chahal now has 20 wickets this season. This is the fourth time he has taken 20 or more wickets in an IPL season, emulating Lasith Malinga, who is the only other bowler to get to 20 or more wickets in four IPL editions.
Brief Scores: PBKS 189/5 (J Bairstow 56, Jitesh Sharma 38, Y Chahal 3/28); RR 190/4 in 19.4 overs (Y Jaiswal 68, D Padikkal 31, S Hetmyer 31*, Arshdeep 2/29). RR won by 5 wickets.