Kings of Punjab 145 for 5 (Curran 63*, Avesh 2-28, Chahal 2-31) won Rajasthan Royals 144 for 9 (Parag 48, Ashwin 28, Curran 2-24, Chahar 2-26, Harshal 2-28) with five wickets
Form can change quickly in T20s, and in a league like the IPL, non-stop action can also change things quickly. Rajasthan Royals (RR) became the second team to prove it in this IPL after Royal Challengers Bengaluru. But unlike RCB, who have won five matches in a row, RR have now lost four in a row after winning as many on the bounce to hurt their chances of a top-two finish.
Curran hits the changes
Sanju Samson had elected to bat in the first game at the Barsapara Stadium this IPL. And after four overs, the game was going nowhere, with RR at 31 for 1. Curran had Yashasvi Jaiswal cutting the fourth ball of the day after the first one went through cover for four.
Samson hit three boundaries off his first eight balls, with a punch from Arshdeep Singh off the bat. At the other end, Tom Kohler-Cudmore, who came on for Josh Buttler, had started rather calmly.
Curran then introduced Nathan Ellis for the fifth over. Ellis bowled cutters on a slow pitch where the ball seemed to stop, and even hit a few on hard length to test the batsmen. And that’s when RR slowed down. The next 3.2 overs went for just 11 runs, with Samson and Kohler-Cadmore departing for 18.
Parag and Ashwin struggle in the middle overs
PBKS put on ten wickets in three overs, starting with the sixth over. While Ellis and Harshal Patel used the variations to great effect, Rahul Chahar found the order. With two right-handed batsmen in Parag and R Ashwin at the crease, Curran bowled the ninth over to left-arm spinner Harpreet Brar. But Ashwin managed a streaky boundary to take ten from the over.
RR had only 68 on the board after 11 overs when Ashwin struck back. He bowled Chahar over midwicket for a six, before reverse-sweeping it and lofting it over covers for four. But Arshdeep ended Ashwin’s party in the next over by catching him at deep point after an entertaining 28 off 19 balls.
Parag, however, continued to fight, even when RR were 102 for 6 midway through the 15th over. By then, Curran had removed Dhruv Jurel for a duck, while Chahar had Rovman Powell caught and bowled for 4. The death overs (17-20) began with RR on 113, before Parag bowled and cut Arshdeep for four in a row.
PBKS denied Parag the strike throughout the 19th over. Come the 20th over, Harshal trapped Parag for 48 with his trademark slow full toss as the Purple Cap changed heads again, with Harshal ending the day with 22 wickets, two ahead of Jasprit Bumrah.
Curran, Jitesh spoil RR’s first two chances
But Jitesh and Curran didn’t allow RR to run away with the game just yet. Jitesh pulled his second ball for a six, before Curran hit a lucky four off Chahal’s lower end. They continued to hit singles while also finding the occasional boundary, with Curran pulling Chahal from long off, hitting Ashwin at deep extra cover and hitting Boult behind square, all in successive overs.
The required rate had risen to 9.33 per over with six overs remaining when both Jitesh and Curran hit sixes each off Ashwin. But Jitesh was caught by Chahal in the next over, before PBKS brought on Ashutosh Sharma as Impact Sub, and the match was soon over.
Ashutosh bowled Avesh for four before Curran and Ashutosh smashed three sixes in the space of five balls to level the scores and soon seal victory.
Himanshu Agrawal is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo