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‘Or isko log El Classico keh rahe the’ – Fans react as Rajasthan Royals defeat PBKS by 4 wickets in IPL 2023

RR defeated PBKS by 4 wickets and with this loss, the Shikhar Dhawan-led side are eliminated from the tournament.

May 20, 2023 12:07 am

Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) clashed against each other in the 66th match of the Indian Premier League 2023 at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala on Friday, May 19. RR defeated PBKS by 4 wickets and with this loss, the Shikhar Dhawan-led side are eliminated from the tournament.

Earlier, RR skipper Sanju Samson won the toss and opted to bowl first and they started really well as PBKS lost Prabhsimran Singh in the very first over to Trent Boult. Young middle-order batter Atharva Taide and PBKS skipper Shikhar Dhawan batted positively but both of them were dismissed inside the powerplay. And when Navdeep Saini cleaned up Liam Livingstone for 9 runs, PBKS were staring down the barrel at 50/4 in the seventh over.

Jitesh Sharma arrived and counterattacked the PBKS bowlers as he scored 44 off just 28 deliveries and also stitched a 64-run stand with Sam Curran. After his departure, there weren’t any big overs for four overs. But Shahrukh Khan and Curran got their eye in and Yuzvendra Chahal was asked to bowl the penultimate over which went for 28 runs. Shahrukh struck three boundaries in the final over to apply the finishing touches and helped the team to achieve a great total of 187 runs.

Brilliant batting performance by RR

In response, RR had a bad start as they lost their destructive opener Jos Buttler in the 2nd over, however, later both young left-handers of the team Yashasvi Jaiswal and Devdutt Padikkal stitched a brilliant 73-run stand for the 2nd wicket. Padikkal was anchoring the partnership this time as he reached his half-century before Jaiswal, however, he departed after scoring 51 runs off just 30 balls which included 5 fours and 3 sixes.

Jaiswal also smashed his half-century and scored 50 runs off 36 balls which included 8 fours. After his departure, Shimron Hetmyer and Riyan Parag decided to do the rest of the things and stitched a match-winning 32-run stand for the 5th wicket. However, both failed to finish the match but RR needed just 9 runs in the final over and Dhruv Jurel smashed a six in the 4th ball of the final over and won the match.

Here’s how fans reacted: