Mohali: Rajasthan Royals made their way to the play offs as they defeated the Kings XI Punjab quite convincingly by eight wickets at PCA Stadium, Mohali on Thursday. Ajinkya Rahane and Sanju Samson once again played a pivotal role in the victory as the scored 59 and 47 runs respectively to take their team to a total of 147 in just 19 overs.
Earlier, it was some fine bowling from Kevon Cooper which brought back RR into the match after Adam Gilchrist and Shaun Marsh played a blistering innings of 42 and 77 runs which helped KXI-P to reach a total of 145 in their 20 overs.
Cooper was man-of-the-match for his brilliant bowling figures of 3/23 in four overs.
Rajasthan Royals had a bad start as they lost the wicket of Rahul Dravid while chasing the total which brought Shane Watson to the centre. Ajinkya Rahane and Shane Watson didn’t waste much time and started to free their arms with some lusty blows. They kept hitting the boundaries to keep the run-rate under control and by the ninth over RR were 65/1. Watson departed after scoring 31 runs off 37 balls.
But after that Ajinkya Rahane and Sanju Samson made sure that RR didn't lose its way and kept on piling up runs in quick succession. Boundaries were easier to come by as they started playing some crisp shots and with a very well-engineered partnership of 76 runs, they took RR to a comfortable win.
Earlier, Kings XI Punjab lost the wicket of Mandeep Singh who got out for a duck but Adam Gilchrist and Shaun Marsh shifted the gears and took their side to a comfortable position. Kings XI were 1/74 in the first 10 overs and it was some fine stroke display by this duo which setup the innings so beautifully.
Gilchrist departed after scoring 42 runs to Kevon Cooper. Watson struck in the very next over and got David Hussey out and reduced Punjab to 3/107 in 15 overs. However, Marsh and Miller kept dealing in singles and kept the score board ticking but very soon Cooper got both of them out in the 19th over. James Faulkner picked up the wicket of Manpreet Gony in final over to end Punjab innings at 145/6.
By ISN