Donovan Ferreira’s audacious stroke-play handed Punjab Kings their first loss of this IPL edition as Rajasthan Royals cantered home by six wickets in a high-octane chase in Mullanpur on Tuesday.
Chasing a target of 223, Rajasthan Royals needed 71 off the last six overs when Ferreira smashed his way to an unbeaten 52 off 26 balls in the company of the unheralded Shubham Dubey (31 not out off 12 balls) to clinch victory with four balls to spare.
Ferreira was brilliant in picking his areas as the PBKS troika of Arshdeep Singh (1/68 in 4 overs), Lockie Ferguson (0/57 in 4 overs) and Marco Jansen (0/41 in 3.2 overs) would like to forget this day in a hurry.
Between Ferreira and Dubey, they hit nine fours and five sixes as they undid all the good work
done by Yuzvendra Chahal (3/36 in 4 overs).
The manner in which Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (43 off 16 balls) started, with a deluge of sixes — five in all — including a couple of flicked maximums off Arshdeep Singh and Lockie Ferguson, made it seem RR would make a meal of the chase.
Arshdeep was lucky that Sooryavanshi missed out on a sixth six when he mistimed a full-toss, only for Shreyas Iyer to grab it with ease.
It was the wily Chahal who brought the Royals back into the game just when Yashasvi Jaiswal (51 off 27 balls) looked to be slowly taking it away in the company of Dhruv Jurel (20 off 16 balls).
Jurel, however, committed hara-kiri, offering an easy skier off a full-toss, but it was the manner in which Jaiswal and skipper Riyan Parag (29 off 16 balls) were dismissed that deserved more than an honourable mention.
For both, the pace on the ball was considerably taken off and it was flighted outside the off-stump line, without giving enough room to free their arms. Both were holed out at long-off.
But then, Ferreira and Dubey had other ideas as Chahal’s good work went down the drain.
Earlier, Marcus Stoinis muscled his way to a 20-ball half-century despite a gallant effort from young leg-spinner Yash Raj Punja as Punjab Kings posted a competitive 222 for 4 after being put into bat.
While Punjab’s top three — Prabhsimran Singh (59 off 44 balls), Priyansh Arya (29 off 11 balls) and Cooper Connolly (30 off 14 balls) — all looked dangerous, none of them went on to play a big knock on a track that was hard and offered appreciable bounce.
It was Stoinis who bludgeoned his way to an unbeaten 22-ball 62 with half a dozen sixes and four boundaries as Royals gave away as many as 55 runs in the last three overs.
Inexperienced Brijesh Sharma’s (0/42 in 4 overs) pace-off ploy backfired, with 24 coming off the final over of the innings.
Stoinis, who hadn’t really been summoned this season, was all about brute power, and Royals bowlers, including the dependable Jofra Archer (1/40), were guilty of bowling length balls inside his hitting arc.
However, credit should go to the unheralded Yash Raj (2/41 in 4 overs), a 6 feet 4 inches tall leg-spinner, for varying his pace, not being afraid to flight the ball and alter the length as and when required, and keeping things tight till the 16th over.
Just when Connolly was cutting loose with some delectable strokeplay, Yash Raj got the Australian against the run of play by flighting one outside the off-stump, asking the batter to fetch it.
The result was an easy catch for Donovan Ferreira at long-off.
Prabhsimran, despite scoring a half-century and hitting six boundaries and a six, wasn’t very smooth with his timing. Yash Raj, whose average speed was in the early 90s (kmph), slowed it down and enticed Prabhsimran to throw the kitchen sink without being anywhere close to the pitch of the delivery.
The catch was cleanly collected by Riyan Parag.
(With PTI Inputs)
