In a contest the place bowlers known as the photographs for many components, it was batter Shimron Hetymer who helped the Rajastan Royals to an exciting three-wicket win over the Punjab Kings in a 2024 Indian Premier League match on Saturday.
After opting to area first and using some significantly questionable techniques, the Royals romped residence with one ball to spare on the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh Worldwide Cricket Stadium in Chandigarh.
Earlier within the day, the Punjab Kings did not get going as they stored dropping wickets at common intervals batting first. Taking part in with out their common captain Shikhar Dhawan, the Kings posted a decent 147/8 of their 20 overs after a surprising 16-ball cameo from their influence participant Ashutosh Sharma (31).
Left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj (2-23) and pacer Avesh Khan (2-34) have been the standout performers with the ball for the Rajasthan Royals, whereas Trent Boult, Kuldeep Singh, and Yuzvendra Chahal all picked a wicket apiece.
Turning level of the match
Regardless of posting an underwhelming whole, the Punjab Kings made a match out of the competition, largely due to star bowler Kagiso Rabada, all-rounder Liam Livingstone (1-22) and stand-in captain Sam Curran (2-25).
With opening mixture of Kotian (24) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (37) having added 56 runs for the primary wicket and later Sanju Samson (18) flexing his muscle mass with a few boundaries, the Royals gave the impression to be in a driving seat earlier than the Punjab Kings worldwide trio virtually derailed the chase. “Nearly” being the key phrase.
The Royals have been struggling at 113/4 within the seventeenth over, when Hetmyer entered the crease. The left-handed batter noticed his Dhruv Jurel fall to Harshal Patel within the subsequent over earlier than deciding to go on a rampage.
The 27-year-old from Guyana, cleared his entrance leg and heaved Patel to the mid-wicket boundary off his penultimate supply within the match earlier than pulling over the fine-leg area for a six the very subsequent ball.
The pacer leaked 14 runs off the 18th over as Hetmyer single handedly introduced down the required run price from over 12 runs per over when Jurel fell, to 10 runs per over 4 balls later.
Hetymer discovered an in a position ally in Rovman Powell, who hit Curran for consecutive boundaries within the nineteenth over earlier than being caught behind, however it the top it was all all the way down to him.
The West Indian didn’t disappoint, regardless of Arshdeep Singh beginning the ultimate over with two dot balls, as he went 6, 2, 6 off the following three deliveries to take Rajasthan Royals over the road.
The Subject’s participant of the match
With the influence he had on the end result of the match, it’s onerous to look previous Hetmyer for The Subject’s participant of the match. His 10-ball keep modified the end result of the match, overshadowing Sharma’s 16-ball effort from earlier within the day.
There have been additionally influence performances from Maharaj and Rabada however it was finally Hetmyer, who did the heavy lifting underneath strain.
‘Didn’t need to unsettle batting order’
Within the absence of Ravichandran Ashwin, who was compelled to skip the match attributable to a niggle, Rajasthan Royals handed an Indian Premier League debut to off-spinner Tanush Kotian.
When the 25-year-old from Mumbai was not handed a single over within the first innings, it was comprehensible for Samson and the Royals had every little thing underneath management with their extra skilled bowlers dominating the opponents.
Nonetheless in an surprising transfer, the Royals opened their chase with Kotian as a accomplice to Yashasvi Jaiswal rather than Jos Buttler, who additionally missed the match attributable to a niggle.
Kotian is a sound lower-order batter and was seen batting as little as quantity 9 and 10 throughout the latest Ranji Trophy season for Mumbai. In actual fact, he has neither batted above quantity 8 in T20s nor had he batted above quantity 4 in complete home profession. Right here, he was requested to open the innings.
The transfer raised eyebrows as Kotian struggled for his 31-ball 24 with three boundaries earlier than being cleaned up by Livingstone, however the Rajasthan Royals captain Samson insisted it was a nicely thought out transfer.
“Tanush is a really attention-grabbing teen. He got here in as an all-rounder. He had a superb Ranji Trophy season with Mumbai and he’s been performing nicely. He has impressed all of the teaching employees and everybody within the nets. We had a correct, settled batting order after the openers, we did not need to unsettle it after which convey somebody up for only one sport. Jos [Buttler] is nearly prepared for the following sport, so we simply needed to strive him [Kotian] up the order.”
— Sanju Samson on opening with Tanush Kotian
Factors Desk
| Place | Staff | Performed | Received | Misplaced | NRR | Factors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | RR | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0.767 | 10 |
| 2 | KKR | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1.528 | 6 |
| 3 | CSK | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0.666 | 6 |
| 4 | LSG | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0.436 | 6 |
| 5 | SRH | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0.344 | 6 |
| 6 | GT | 6 | 3 | 3 | -0.637 | 6 |
| 7 | MI | 5 | 2 | 3 | -0.073 | 4 |
| 8 | PBKS | 6 | 2 | 4 | -0.218 | 4 |
| 9 | DC | 6 | 2 | 4 | -0.975 | 4 |
| 10 | RCB | 6 | 1 | 5 | -1.124 | 2 |