Synopsis: A game neither team seemingly wanted to win meandered along until Kagiso Rabada threatened to seize it for Punjab in the middle overs of the chase before Shimron Hetmyer ensured that Rajasthan Royals prevailed in the final over.
With Jos Buttler out of the game due to injury, Rajasthan Royals took the decision to open with bowling all-rounder Tanush Kotian. Perhaps, the plan was to just stay there and runs would come, but it didn’t quite go that way as both openers – Kotian and Yashasvi Jaiswal – dawdled along. Only 43 runs came in the Powerplay and Kotian fell in the 9th over to leg-spinner Liam Livingstone, rushing out for a big hit but failing to connect and getting bowled for 31-ball 24. Jaiswal too couldn’t really break free as he could only make a 28-ball 39.
Kagiso Rabada came on in the middle overs with 69 needed from 54 balls, and by the time he finished, the equation was 58 from 36 balls. Sensing Jaiswal was making room to have a go, Rabada bounced him, inducing a top edge from the attempted slash that was taken by third man.
Rabada tried gamely to cook in some pressure on Royals and was successful too. He followed Jaiswal’s wicket with a lovely slower ball to fox Rajasthan’s captain Sanju Samson, who was through with his pull shot before the ball arrived to trap him LBW.
When the equation read 46 from 27 balls, Riyan Parag slugged a Sam Curran slower one to long-on where Livingstone clanged it. Of the last ball of that 16th over, Curran himself had another possible chance but he wasn’t ready to grab the leading edge from Parag that went just over his head.
Enter Rabada to show how it’s done. When Parag pulled a slower short one from Arshdeep Singh, Rabada back-pedalled at deep midwicket to pouch the skier to lift his team further.
But even with wickets falling and the run rate slackening, the eventual target wasn’t too high for Hetmyer to do his thing. He carved Harshal Patel for a four and a pulled six in the 18th over and Rovman Powell slammed Sam Curran for two fours in the next. When Powell fell, edging a short ball in the same over, and Keshav Maharaj slugged the last ball to long-on, the equation came to 10 needed from the final over.
Hetmyer failed to connect with the first two outside-off yorkers from Arshdeep Singh. He then charged out to wallop a length ball onto the boundary rope for a six. Next ball, he flat-batted it to left of long-on where Curran misfielded to allow the second run. Two from two, and Arshdeep slipped a full toss on the hips, which was put beyond backward square-leg. Game over.
The game should have been over a long while back if Rajasthan hadn’t fumbled in the chase as Punjab’s batting was an advertisement for how not to play T20s.
A few days ago, out of the blue, Virender Sehwag had a pop at his previous franchise Punjab Kings where he had played for two seasons at the end of his career.
“When I was in Punjab, my strike rate had dropped. Woh kehte hai na ke jaisi sangati waisa behave karte ho. Toh waha ki sangati waisi hi thi. Jeet-tey nahi, khelte achcha toh nahi, toh mera game aur thoda kharab ho gaya (It was due to bad company there. They don’t win matches, they don’t play well and hence my game deteriorated further),” Sehwag had said on Jio Cinema.
It’s not known what the current lot of players in the team think of his comment but they do play as if they agree with him. It was another low-quality performance from them.
Jonny Bairstow arrived in India in January to play five Test matches. He averaged 23.80 in that series and former England players began to call for his head by the end. Now, IPL talking heads have gone for him as he has 82 runs in the season thus far, stumbling from one arena to another.
Saturday evening at Mullanpur offered no respite either as he sleepwalked through another knock, struggling for timing, until Keshav Maharaj offered him relief by ending his stay. Bairstow first tried to back away and had to lunge across to reach the ball, and could only bunt it to Shimron Hetmyer at cover. It was a tame end to a tamer innings and it remains to be seen whether Punjab persevere with him.
The middle order too combusted on arrival before Impact Player Ashutosh Sharma connected with a few big hits in his 16-ball 31 to drag Punjab to a total that they nearly defended.
Brief scores: Punjab Kings 147/8 in 20 overs (Ashutosh Sharma 31, Jitesh Sharma 29; Keshav Maharaj 2/23) lost to Rajasthan Royals 152/7 in 19.5 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 39, Shimron Hetmyer 27 not out; Kagiso Rabada 2/18, Sam Curran 2/25) by three wickets
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