UTV | COLOMBO – Rajasthan Royals kept their tournament alive with an astute defence of 158 engineered by spinners K. Gowtham and Ish Sodhi, who took a combined 3 for 25 in seven overs even as KL Rahul made a skilful unbeaten 95.
Only one other Kings XI Punjab batsman got into double-figures on a pitch where the only other 30-plus score came from Royals opener Jos Buttler, whose 82 was his fifth half-century in six of his last T20 innings as an opener.
Royals had elected to bat on an evening where the temperatures came close to 41 degrees Celsius, conditions that became more and more impactful through the evening and made scoring runs progressively tougher.
They made 158 for 8 in their 20 0vers. Buttler top scored with 82 off 58 balls inclusive of 9 fours and 1 six.
In reply, KXIP managed to reach 143 for 7.
Rahul remained unbeaten on 95 off 70 balls. His knock included 11 fours and 2 sixes.
Ish Sodhi was the pick of the RR bowlers with 1 for 14 off 4 overs.
Here are the action-filled Rahul’s innings:
