Guwahati, May 15: Rajasthan Royals batting struggle continued as the Punjab Kings’ excellent bowling efforts restricted them to a score of 144/9 in match 65 of the Indian Premier League at the Barsapara Stadium in Guwahati on Wednesday.

It was once again the hometown hero, Riyan Parag who continued his impressive form scoring 48 runs off 34 deliveries. He replayed his innings from their previous game against CSK in a similar fashion where he had scored 47 runs off 35 deliveries. Parag’s contribution was the only worthwhile one in the RR batting lineup as the team was restricted to a sub par score.

The Royals for the second game in a row struggled to get off to a good start in the game. Punjab captain Sam Curran who stated before the game that he “certainly does not want to lose tonight’ started the game by backing his statement and bowled out Indian Prodigy, Yashasvi Jaiswal in the very first over.

RR managed to score only 33 runs in the powerplay which was similar to their powerplay score of 42 against CSK in their previous game. This was followed by wickets at regular intervals for PBKS whose bowlers did not give the Rajasthani batters any chance of gathering rhythm.

The fall of the third wicket saw the team send Ravichandran Ashwin to the crease in hopes of restoring some sort of rhythm into the team. The Indian veteran did answer the calls of the team’s management as he strung together a 50-run partnership which was the largest of the night before Ashwin was caught trying to clear the boundary off Arshdeep Singh. After Ashwin’s departure, the middle and lower order were kept in check by the Kings’ bowlers.

Riyan Parag lost his wicket as he was caught plumb for lbw in the final over through a slower full toss by Harshal Patel who became the leading wicket-taker with 22 wickets overtaking Jasprit Bumrah (20 wickets) with one game to go.

Brief Score: Rajasthan Royals 144/9 in 20 overs (Riyan Parag 48, Ravichandran Ashwin 28; Sam Curran 2-24, Rahul Chahar 2-26) against Punjab Kings

(IANS)

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