The whole India has been gripped by the IPL fever and yesterday’s match between Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings (earlier Kings XI Punjab) has further increased the excitement and guaranteed that the Indian cricket lovers will have a gala time till May 30.
Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings played their first match of the IPL 2021 yesterday at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. RR won the toss and decided to bowl first, however the batsmen of PBKS played superbly and posted a huge total of 221 runs at the loss of 6 wickets. The skipper of PBKS, KL Rahul was the highest scorer for his team as he made 91 runs in 50 balls (7 fours & 5 sixes) and the West Indian cricketer Chris Gayle scored 40 runs in 28 deliveries (4 fours & 2 sixes) but the highlight of PBKS batting was Deepak Hooda’s innings who completed his half-century in 20 balls, Hooda got out at 64 runs which he scored in 28 balls (4 fours & 6 sixes).
In response, RR had a bad start as their openers Ben Stokes got out for a duck while Manan Vohra was able to score 12 runs but it was the newly appointed skipper of RR, Sanju Samson who made everyone’s heartbeat faster with his destructive batting. Sanju Samson has become the first batsman to score a century on his captaincy debut as he scored 119 runs in 63 balls (12 fours & 7 sixes).
PBKS won the match by 4 runs as RR managed 217 runs in the stipulated 20 overs. There was a time when everyone felt that Sanju Samson would take his team home as the winner but it was beautiful bowling by Arshdeep Singh in the final over of the innings that made it impossible for RR to win the match. On the 5th ball of the 20th over, RR needed 5 runs to win but Sanju Samson refused a single to Chris Morris as he wanted to keep the strike and hit a six on the last ball of the match. Sanju played a good shot on the final ball but it went straight into the hands of Deepak Hooda and PBKS won the match.
KL Rahul opened up on yesterday’s match and he was full of praises for Sanju Samson. Rahul said that his heart rate was also high like others but he didn’t stop believing and he knew that the fall of couple of wickets would bring them back in the game. He added that till the 10-11 overs, his team bowled well and even though they dropped couple of easy catches, still they did pretty well as a bowling unit. KL Rahul added that it is really difficult to bowl against Sanju and they were not thinking of the last year’s match which had a thrilling finish as well.
Talking about Dinesh Hooda’s batting, Rahul said that his innings was just amazing and this is the type of batting that they want to see as a team. As per him, his team has a power line-up and they will love to bat without any fear and rip apart the opposition bowlers. RR will play its next match against Delhi Capitals on April 15 while PBKS will be playing their next match against Chennai Super Kings on April 16.