IPL 2018: RR vs KXIP Match Report

Match 40 of IPL 2018 was an encounter between the Rajasthan Royals and the Kings XI Punjab. Rajasthan won the toss and elected to bat first. Ajinkya Rahane was the first casualty, having been caught for 9 runs.

Krishnappa Gowtham was the next man to fall with only 8 runs scored. Meanwhile, Rahane’s opening partner, Jos Buttler rocketed away and built a solid foundation. Sanju Samson stuck around a little longer before he too departed for 22 runs.

Ben Stokes was caught out for 14 and Stuart Binny was run out for 11. Joffra Archer and Jaydev Unadkat went out for ducks and Buttler finally wilted as was stumped out for 82 runs. Rajasthan ended their innings with a score of 158 for the loss of 8 wickets.

Then, it was the Kings XI’s turn to bat in the second innings of IPL 2018. Chris Gayle was the first victim, being stumped out for a single run, while opening partner KL Rahul marched on. Skipper Ravichandran Ashwin went out for a duck while Karun Nair was out for 3 runs. Akshdeep Nath lasted 13 deliveries and 9 runs before returning to the dugout.

Manoj Tiwary, Axar Patel and Marcus Stoinis also had brief cameos, adding scores of 7,9 and 11 respectively. Andrew Tye was not out with a score of 1 while KL Rahul was also not out on 95. It would have been a good foundation to build up the chase but Punjab could not form a decent partnership. Punjab would fall short by 15 runs for the loss of 7 wickets.

In the bowling department, Andrew Ty was a big gainer with 4 wickets scalped for an economy of 8.50. For KXIP, none of the Indian bowlers had a wicket to their name, not counting run outs. Mohit Sharma was the least economical with a rate of 9.67, while Mujeeb Ur Rahman was the most economical with figures of 5.25 with 2 wickets.

When the Royals came out to bowl, Anureet Singh was the most expensive bowler with a rate of 12.00. However, he could be forgiven as he had only bowled 1 over. He and Mahipal Lomror had no wickets claimed in today’s match. By contrast, Jaydev Unadkat gave away the most runs with 36 for 1 wicket and an economy of 9.00. Ish Sodhi had the best figures of 14 runs in 4 overs with one wicket and an economy of 3.50.