Rajasthan Royals (RR) put on a sensational show with the bat, setting a record for the highest successful chase in the history of the Indian Premier League when they defeated XI Punjab (KXIP) by four goals in the ninth match of the Dream11 IPL Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in 2020 Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Sunday.
RR v KXIP | IPL 2020 Match 9 Highlights
KXIP got off to a flying start when Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul were pretty much in tune with one another shot for shot. The two good friends were having fun, and it was RR who took the brunt of it when KXIP marched towards sixty at the end of the power play, with Mayank and Rahul hitting 29 and 26 runs respectively.
The mandatory power play was over, but that didn’t put off as KXIP continued to score quickly. While Mayank paused near the perimeter rope in the seventh game despite a good field attempt by Riyan Parag, the KXIP opener continued to attack and hit two sixes and a four in the next from Rahul Tewatia.
The merry ways continued for Mayank as he chased his Karnataka teammate – Shreyas Gopal – in ninth rank and slammed two sixes to raise his fifty and one hundred.
While Rahul was finishing his fifty in the 12th, Mayank had gone past 80. The two then finished the 150-run stand on the 14th.
Mayank, who scored 89 goals in KXIP’s first game against Delhi Capitals, then finished his first IPL ton and hit the final surrender of the 15th for four.
However, RR managed to stop the Mayank-Rahul Moloch over the course of the next three overs. While Tom Curran dismissed Mayank after his 106-run stroke with 50 balls, which included 10 fours and 7 sixes, Ankit Rajpoot overtook Rahul for 69 on the last ball of the 18th.
However, RR still got 29 points from the last two overs when Nicholas Pooran scored 25 * from 8 and Glenn Maxwell 13 * from 9 balls to bring KXIP to 223/2, which is now the highest team rating in the 2020 IPL.
With 224 runs to victory, RR needed a blistering start and skipper Steve Smith wasted no time getting started when he hit two foursome in the first run of the pursuit.
But KXIP managed to sack Jos Buttler in game three when Sarfaraz Khan scored Sheldon Cottrell with a good low shot. Sanju Samson then joined Smith in the middle and the pair continued where they departed in the first game against Chennai Super Kings.
Sanju Samson didn’t need any sifter at all as he creamed the first legal delivery he played for a six before hitting the third ball he faced for a four. Smith then beat Mohammad Shami for a six and a four in the fourth.
KXIP introduced Ravi Bishnoi to attack in game five and Sanju Samson hit him for a six and a four to push RR over fifty. Smith put his second fifty in a row of IPL 2020 over in the ninth but lost his wicket in the same over.
Rahul Tewatia then joined Sanju Samson in the middle. While Sanju Samson went past fifty, KXIP managed to keep things tight and conceded just 21 runs in the next four overs.
Sanju Samson and Tewatia then each hit a six in the two overs, but RR needed something extraordinary to push their way over the finish line and Sanju Samson opened the floodgates to hit Maxwell in the 16th over for three sixes. But he passed on the 17th after scoring 85 of 42 balls and hitting 4 fours and 7 sixes.
At the end of the 17th pass, Tewatia hit 17 of 23 balls and it took RR a miracle to score 51 of the last three overs. But then Tewatia changed gear and how. He went after Cottrell creaming up to five sixes to get 47 of 29 balls and got the target to 21 of 2 overs.
While Shami took Robin Uthappa on the first ball of the penultimate game, Jofra Archer hammered two sixes from the next two deliveries before Tewatia hit another to improve his fifty and bring the winning goal down to two runs.
Despite stepping past the last ball on the 19th and bowling Murugan Ashwin a point and taking a wicket from Riyan Parag, Curran hit a four on the third ball of the final for a sensational RR win.