IPL 2023: Punjab Kings thrilling last over win against Rajasthan Royals, Shimron Hetmyer’s stormy innings goes in vain

In the eighth match of IPL 2023 played in Guwahati, Punjab Kings defeated Rajasthan Royals (RR vs PBKS) by 5 runs. Batting first, Punjab Kings scored 197/4 in 20 overs, in reply Rajasthan Royals could score only 192/7 after playing the entire over.

Electing to bat first after losing the toss, Punjab Kings got off to a strong start. Prabhsimran Singh, who came to open the batting along with skipper Shikhar Dhawan, put on 63 runs on the board in the first six overs itself. Prabhasimran managed to score a half-century and was dismissed for 90 after scoring 60 runs in 34 balls with the help of seven fours and three sixes. Bhanuka Rajapakse retired hurt after scoring 1 run. From here, Dhawan and Jitesh Sharma took the innings forward and shared a half-century partnership to take the score past 150. Jitesh got out after scoring 27 runs in 16 balls. Sikandar Raja could not do anything special and got bowled on Ravichandran Ashwin’s carrom ball after scoring just 1 run. Shahrukh Khan got out in the last over after scoring 11 runs. Dhawan remained unbeaten till the end and played an innings of 86 runs in 56 balls. His innings included nine fours and three sixes. Jason Holder took the maximum two wickets from Rajasthan Royals.

Chasing the target, Rajasthan Royals got the first blow on the score of 13 and opener Yashasvi Jaiswal became the victim of Arshdeep Singh after scoring 11 runs. Ravichandran Ashwin, who came as the second opener, could not even open his account. Jos Buttler also went on to score 19 runs in 11 balls. Captain Sanju Samson batted in a blistering fashion and was dismissed for 91 after scoring 42 runs in 25 balls. Riyan Parag scored 20 and Devdutt Padikkal scored 21 runs. From here Shimron Hetmyer and Dhruv Jurel batted furiously and added 61 runs in just 26 balls to take the match to the last over. Rajasthan Royals needed 16 runs in the last over but Hetmyer was run out on the third ball on a personal score of 36 and then the team had to face defeat. Jurel remained unbeaten after scoring 32 runs in 15 balls. Nathan Ellis took four wickets for Punjab Kings.

Reasons for RR’s lose

R Ashwin coming to bat at as an opener was quite shocking as Buttler could have done it as always and this might a big question to ask Padikkal, who came to bat in the sixth over of Rajasthan Royals’ innings, played a lot of dot balls and increased the pressure on the team. When he was expected to make big shots and compensate, then he got out and went to the pavilion. The left-handed batsman faced 26 balls and scored 21 runs hitting just one boundary.