Fans witnessed a nail-biting thriller between Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings where Sanju Samson’s team defeated Shikhar Dhawan’s team by 4 wickets on Friday at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala. It was a late blitz from Hetmyer (46 off 28 balls) which helped the Royals to win the Match 66 of the IPL 2023.
Earlier, Rajasthan Royals have won the toss and invited Punjab Kings to bat first and they ended up making 187/5 in their 20 overs against Rajasthan Royals on Friday. England’s all-rounder Sam Curran played a knock of 49 runs off 31 balls alongside Jitesh Sharma (44) and Shahrukh Khan (41*) cameo and helped the side to post a decent total.
From RR's bowling department, Navdeep Saini took three wickets.
In reply, star batter Yashasvi Jaiswal started well despite his colleague Jos Buttler going back to the pavilion early in the innings. The left-hander played many beautiful shots and collected fifty runs. Apart from Jaiswal, another talented left-hander Devdutt Padikkal also continued his good form and made 51 runs and put his team in a commanding position. But then the Royals’s suffered a few quick blows then came in Hetmyer, taking the onus on his shoulders as he amassed 46 runs off just 28 balls to power his team to a win. However, it was Dhruv Jurel who smashed a six and finished the game in style.
For Punjab Kings, Kagiso Rabada picked up two wickets while Sam Curran and Arshdeep Singh scalped a wicket each. With this win, the Rajasthan-based franchise are still alive in the race for the IPL 2023 playoffs as they moved to the 5th spot in the points table.
Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Shikhar Dhawan(c), Prabhsimran Singh, Atharva Taide, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran, Jitesh Sharma(w), Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Rahul Chahar, Kagiso Rabada, Arshdeep Singh.
Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson(w/c), Devdutt Padikkal, Shimron Hetmyer, Riyan Parag, Adam Zampa, Trent Boult, Navdeep Saini, Sandeep Sharma, Yuzvendra Chahal.