Guwahati: Whereas it was the primary residence match for Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2023 at their adopted home- the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati, Punjab Kings had the final chortle at this venue on Wedesday. The 2014 IPL finalists beat the inaugural champions and final 12 months runners up by 5 runs in match quantity 8 of the 2023 version of the event.
Although Punjab didn’t win the toss, they dominated a lot of the competition with captain Shikhar Dhawan leading from the front with his unbeatean record-breaking 86. His innings together with Prabhsimran Singh’s quickfire 60 off 34 balls laid the inspiration of what finally turned out to be a match-winning 197/4.
Jitesh Sharma additionally made a helpful contribution value 27 off 16. Nonetheless, Punjab, who seemed set to get previous the 200-run mark for essentially the most a part of his innings could not breach that mark largely owing to Jason Holder’s 2 for 29 and R Ashwin’s 1 for 25.
Within the run-chase, Rajasthan determined to ship in R Ashwin to open when Jos Buttler had injured himself however the plan backfired and RR misplaced two wickets in fast succession when after Yashasvi Jaiswal’s wicket, Ashwin received out for a duck. Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson had been placing at a superb fee however could not get a giant innings beneath their belt.
Whereas Arshdeep Singh supplied the preliminary breakthroughs for Punjab, it was Nathan Ellis who emerged because the workforce’s decide of the bowlers, scalping 4 wickets for 30 runs. In the long run, Shimron Hetmyer (36 off 18) and Dhruv Jurel’s cameo did ignite hopes of Rajasthan getting over the road however in the long run, Punjab bowlers held their nerves to return out on high with Sam Curran bowling an outstanding ultimate over to efficiently defend 16 runs.
That is the second win on the trot for Punjab Kings who had defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by 7 runs (DLS technique) in Mohali of their first sport. Rajasthan too had thrashed Sunrisers Hyderabad by 72 runs of their first match however could not repeat an identical efficiency on this sport.