Rajasthan Royals pulled off a brilliant victory over Punjab Kings by four wickets in Match No. 66 of IPL 2023 in Dharamsala on Friday. With this win, they are still in contention for a playoff berth. While chasing a target of 188, the Royals crossed the finishing line as they reached 189/6 in 19.4 overs.
Left-hander Shimron Hetmyer scored 46 while opener Yashasvi Jaiswal scored yet another fifty in the ongoing 2023 edition of the IPL. Devdutt Padikkal also contributed to the team’s victory by making 51 runs.
Talking about Jaiswal’s run, former India cricketer Suresh Raina said, "There is a certain calmness in his batting. There is a different energy in his body language, scoring runs consistently for his team. For this, I'll give a lot of credit to Kumar Sangakkara who is sitting in their dugout. He's (Jaiswal) a different type of player. He looks to dominate. And any player who looks to dominate in this format reaches a different level. He has all those qualities."
Earlier, Punjab Kings made 187/5 with the help of Sam Curran’s 49, Jitesh Sharma’a 44, and Shahrukh Khan's 41 not out.
Former India cricketer Pragyan Ojha analyzed Rajathan’s performance and said, "I think it's too late now. For a team who you kept in your top four before the start of the tournament to now come and think that they can advance only if the other team that is in contention loses is a situation they brought upon themselves."
"That is something they have to think about. As Raina (Suresh) pointed out Samson and Buttler got out for ducks in five of the 14 games. Then they were left searching for bowlers, also the way they used their bowlers... The small things add up to something big and it is visible in the eventual result," he added.
With this win, the Royals have now gained 14 points while Punjab Kings finished the season with 12 points from 14 games. The Rajasthan-based franchise has now sitting at the fifth spot in the points table and their fate will now depend on the outcome of the remaining games as both Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians have 14 points each as well.