NEW DELHI: Rajasthan Royals were defeated for the fourth time in a row in IPL as Punjab Kings claimed a five-wicket win against them at their IPL 2024 match on Wednesday.
Despite the loss, Rajasthan Royals have already earned 16 points to make it into next round matches of playoffs.
However this will depend if Sunrisers Hyderabad can reach to 18 points considering that they have one match remaining and on account of Rajasthan Royals having inferior net run-rate may not finish in top two.
According to post-match comments by Sanju Samson, the Captain of Rajasthan Royals, after the match reflecting on what is going wrong for his team in this tournament,” he said, “We are supposed to sit down and agree we are facing failures, lost four games on the straight. For us as a team got to find out what’s not working out. A lot of people should take responsibility. Our squad has many match winners that need to stand up. This is when we have to show character. We must score more runs. We thought a good total would have been between 160-170. This year we haven’t seen pitches where scoring above 200 isn’t easy here in UAE. Today, we had to play smart cricket and build those partnerships around that pitch. Hopeful for results (in upcoming games).”
In the game Punjab Kings effectively restricted RR only managed 144 for nine.
Local boy Riyan Parag managed an impressive strike rate of 141 with his unbeaten knock of 48 off just 34 balls for all sorts of challenges.
They did so through an inspiring performance from their captain Sam Curran (2/24), Harshal Patel (2/28), Nathan Ellis (1/24) and Rahul Chahar (2/26) who attacked early on in their opponents innings and never let them settle as they took wickets at regular intervals thereby ensuring they kept RR at bay.
In response, skipper Curran led from the front with an unbeaten 63 off 41 balls, ensuring Punjab’s victory with seven balls to spare.
“Few more runs were needed. I think we were 10-15 runs short. It was a 160 kind of wicket. We would have easily got more than 160 (had we played better), that’s where we lost the game. Would have been nice to have one more bowling option. I am getting used to five quality bowlers,” a disappointed Samson said.
