Royals stutter at Kings’ fort

Gaurav Kanthwal

Tribune News Service

Mohali, April 16

Kings XI Punjab registered an easy 12-run win over a lacklustre Rajasthan Royals at home to get back to winning ways after suffering back-to-back losses against Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians.

KL Rahul’s 52 off 47 balls and David Miller’s quickfire 40 kept the home team on course, while Ravichandran Ashwin’s 17 off four balls, with two sixes, in the last over helped the hosts put up an above-par total (182/6).

The Punjab captain returned to bag two wickets — dismissing Rahul Tripathi and Sanju Samson — and applied the spin choke to leave the Royals hamstrung. Tripathi (50) and Stuart Binny (33) tried their best but Royals were left stranded at 170/7.

Henriques, Mujeeb injured

The hosts’ plans were disrupted even before the first ball of the match was bowled as Aussie all-rounder Moises Henriques was ruled out with an ankle injury while warming up, though replacement Miller more than made up for the setback. In the eighth over of Rajasthan’s innings, off-spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman picked up a shoulder injury while trying to save a boundary at deep cover. Part-timer Mandeep Singh bowled one over in Rahman’s absence and gave away just eight runs.

Rajasthan made an unusual decision of dropping Steve Smith and playing Ashton Turner (0) — who had scored 84 for Australia in the ODI series against India while chasing a record 359 on the same ground last month.

No Ashwin vs Buttler

The highly-anticipated battle between Ashwin and Jos Buttler did not materialise as the Englishman was caught behind in the fifth over off debutant Arshdeep Singh, while Ashwin came into action in the sixth over. Ashwin, though, celebrated the dismissal of Buttler in an exaggerated manner.

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