Punjab Kings and Rajasthan Royals were beginning their campaign from the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on the 12th of April. In this nail-biting thriller, Punjab Kings outplayed the Rajasthan Royals by 4 runs (as I predicted). Sanju Samson, the new skipper of the Rajasthan Royals managed to win the toss. He invited Rahul’s army to bat first. Here’s how the match went.
1st Innings
Punjab Kings, who changed their name recently came out to bat, led by the skipper Rahul and his mate Mayank Agarwal. They started well but could not take it much further, and at the 4th delivery of the 3rd over. Mayan Agarwal lost his wicket to the debutant Chetan Sakariya. Mayank was timing the ball adequately, however, could not score big and got out on 14 runs.
The universe boss Gayle joined the skipper KL to score a second-wicket partnership of 68 runs in just 43 deliveries. At the team scored 89 runs, Gayle went for a big shot but unfortunately got caught by Ben Stokes at long-on. He got out after scoring 40 runs. Everyone was shocked when Deepak Hooda joined KL after the wicket of Gayle, in place of Nicholas Pooran.
Deepak Hooda and KL Rahul played flamboyantly by delivering the ball out of the park on a regular basis. Deepak Hooda scored quickly and added 64 runs for the team in just 28 deliveries. In his attacking innings, he hit 6 sixes and 4 boundaries. Unfortunately, he got out to Chris Morris, but he set the tone for the team to achieve a mammoth total.
Captain KL Rahul did so. Although, he missed out on his well-deserved century by 9 runs and got out after scoring 91 runs in just 50 balls. Nevertheless, they had a very good total on the board as they managed to score 221-6 in 20 overs.
2nd Innings
Rajasthan Royals tried a new opening pair as Ben Stokes and Manan Vohra came out in the middle to start the inning. However, they didn’t get the start they wanted and lost their key batsman, Ben Stokes in the 3rd ball of 1st over. He got out without moving the scoreboard.
Skipper Sanju Samson joined Vohra in the middle to take the game further. Vohra played a couple of classy shots but got departed after scoring just 12 runs. Rajasthan Royals were looking into huge trouble as they were 25-2. Josh Buttler and Sanju scored a 45 runs partnership and took the team total to 70 runs in 7.2 overs. Jhye Richardson sent Buttler back to the pavilion. He scored 25 runs in 13 balls.
Wickets kept falling on one end but, the leader Samson played some quality innings and gave sheer hope to RR fans. Riyan Parag and Shivam Dube also scored 20+ runs and made things easier for RR. At the last over, 13 runs were required to kill the game for Rajasthan Royals but that’s where Samson did a blunder. He refused to take the single when the team needed 5 runs in 2 balls. Samson played a crucial knock (119 runs in 63 balls) for the team but failed to be on the winning side eventually. Punjab Kings won the match by 4 runs.
Sanju Samson received the Player of the Match Award for his brave and fighting knock.
Match Summary
Punjab Kings: 221/6 (20 Overs)
- KL Rahul: 91 (50)
- Chetan Sakaria: 31/3
- Deepak Hooda: 64(28)
Rajasthan Royals: 217/7 (20 Overs)
- Sanju Samson: 119 (63)
- Arshdeep Singh: 35/3
- Riyan Parag: 25 (11)
All predictions on IPL2021 you can find here.
English 
Hindi 
Persian 
Urdu 
Nepali 
Bengali 
Myanmar 
Tamil 
Thai