Rajasthan Royals beat Kings XI Punjab by 15 runs in Jaipur. (Source: PTI)
Tye knuckles down
After a four-wicket haul which gave him the Purple Cap, Andrew Tye broke down during his mid-innings interview. “My grandma passed away today and I’m very emotional. It was a pretty tough day,” he said. The Australian seamer’s on-field exploits in the face of a family tragedy spoke volumes for his strength of character. His knuckleballs made inroads at the top and wreaked havoc at the death.
A response was due from Ajinkya Rahane following his unceremonious elimination from Team India’s limited-overs scheme of things on Tuesday. The Rajasthan Royals captain, however, got out cheaply, done in by a knuckleball from Tye. Going at a strike-rate of below 100, Rahane decided to come down the track and clip the fast bowler over mid-wicket. But the delivery almost looped up off the surface and took the leading edge to Akshdeep Nath at extra cover. Rahane’s habit to get stuck continued to be his real bugbear.
Tye’s next three wickets came in the final over of the Royals innings. Ben Stokes was first to go, hitting a full-toss to R Ashwin at extra cover. Stokes had to reach out for it, as the ball never arrived and also moved away outside the off stump. Jofra Archer tried a shimmy down the track and mishit another knuckleball to Manoj Tiwary at long-off. By then, the particular variation had become the stock ball for Tye and Jaydev Unadkat, too, ended up skewing one to Karun Nair at long-on. Royals scored only six runs and lost three wickets in the 20th over to finish at 158/8. Tye returned with 4/34 from four overs.
Buttler’s power-punch
In the final analysis, Jos Buttler’s outstanding 58-ball 82 proved to be the real difference between the two sides, as Royals returned to winning ways. On a pitch that gradually became slow and low, and difficult for batting, the English opener showed his gold-standard utility in the shorter formats. The new ball presented the best opportunity to score quickly here. Buttler started with a bang — back-to-back fours off Marcus Stoinis in the very first over. Against Axar Patel he freed his arms to hit a boundary followed by a maximum. Mohit Sharma, too, was punished and also Tye. Thanks to Buttler’s brilliance, Royals raced to 63/1 at the end of Powerplay. The next 14 overs yielded 95 runs. But Buttler had given his team early momentum, which laid the basis for a respectable total. Kings XI Punjab, on the other hand, made only 33 in Powerplay and lost three wickets. It further attested the value of Buttler’s knock. He has now scored three half-centuries on the spin after being promoted up the order.
Rahul’s excellence
The game saw the return of old-school pinch-hitters. But the experiments flopped. K Gowtham was Royals’ makeshift No. 3, who got out for eight. Ashwin responded by coming at one drop for Kings XI and departed without troubling the scorers. Gowtham, however, shone brighter with the ball – 2/12 compared to Ashwin’s 0/34.
Removing Chris Gayle early was imperative from the hosts’ point of view. Gowtham deceived the big man with a leg-side slider. Gayle had come charging down the wicket and Buttler showed great hands behind the stumps. Ashwin’s gung-ho approach lasted only two ball, as Gowtham made one sneak through the gate to rattle the leg stump. Karun Nair departed next over and from that point onwards it became a fight between a team and an individual.
Two days ago, Rahul’s lone-ranger had secured Kings XI’s win against Royals at Indore. The opener’s 84 not off 54 balls had been a superlative batting performance. Today at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur, Rahul bettered that effort, scoring a magnificent 95 not out off 70 deliveries. But he was fighting a losing battle, with very little support at the other end. Six Punjab batsmen were dismissed to single-digit scores. Still, Rahul kept his side in the game till the back end of the run chase. He was resplendent in his cover drive off Stokes and clinical in picking the gaps, as he pulled a Unadkat delivery off the front foot between deep mid-wicket and long-on. Three consecutive fours against Archer had been gorgeous. Rahul was an island of excellence in a sea of mediocrity. This was his fourth half-century of the season and he has now scored 471 runs in 10 matches in this IPL.
But today he couldn’t pull it off. Punjab finished at 143/7 after 20 overs, losing by 15 runs.