GUWAHATI, APRIL 6
Nathan Ellis took four wickets to help Punjab Kings beat pre-tournament favorites Rajasthan Royals by five runs in the Indian Premier League on Wednesday.
Punjab rode skipper Shikhar Dhawan's 86 not out off 56 balls to score 197-4 and the Royals were restricted to 192-7 in reply with Ellis' spell breaking through the chase.
Rajasthan's impact player Dhruv Jurel smashed 32 not out off 15 balls and put on 61 off 26 only balls for the seventh wicket to raise hopes of an improbable win. But Sam Curran, the IPL's most expensive player, was able to defend 16 off the last six deliveries.
Punjab climbed to second in the points table with four points from two wins. Last year's runner-up Rajasthan is in fourth with two points from two games.
Put in to bat, Punjab got a heady start thanks to opener Prabhsimran Singh's 60 off 34 balls. He hit seven fours and three sixes to reach 50 off 28 balls, and put on 90 off 58 balls with Dhawan.
Singh's dismissal halfway through the innings also brought another stroke of luck for Rajasthan. Sri Lanka's hard-hitting Bhanuka Rajapaksa retired injured for one run after being hit on the forearm by Dhawan's shot at the other end.
Dhawan kept going, though, and added 68 runs off 36 balls with Jitesh Sharma for the second wicket.
He reached his half-century off 36 balls, his 48th in the IPL overall. Dhawan hit nine fours and three sixes during his innings.
Rajasthan's response lost momentum early on as Jos Buttler didn't open the batting owing to a suspected finger injury sustained while taking one of his two catches in the deep.
Surprisingly, Ravichandran Ashwin opened the innings but fell for a four-ball duck to Arshdeep Singh (2-47).
The left-arm pacer also removed opener Yashaswi Jaiswal for 11. Buttler, who batted at No. 3, scored 19 off 11, before Ellis scalped his first of the night.
Skipper Sanju Samson scored 42 off 25 balls, including five fours and a six, but it wasn't enough to provide momentum to the Royals who were down to 91-4 in 11 overs.
Riyan Parag scored 20 off 12, but Devdutt Padikkal simply failed to get going, scoring 21 off 26 at No. 4. Both fell in the 15th over to Ellis, who had also dismissed Samson, thus wrecking the Royals' middle order.
Hetmyer smacked 36 off 18 balls to infuse some hope into the chase, with Jurel making an instant impact. The duo hit four fours and five sixes between them, including taking 18 runs off Singh's penultimate over.
But Hetmyer was run out thereafter, and English all-rounder Curran held his nerve to deny the Royals' charge at their adopted home ground away from Jaipur.
Rajasthan's next game is against Delhi Capitals on Saturday, also at Guwahati, while Punjab travels to Hyderabad to take on the Sunrisers on Sunday.
