Match 38 of IPL 2018 concluded with the King XI Punjab defeating the Rajasthan Royals. Punjab won the toss and opted to chase instead. Jos Buttler and D’Arcy Short opened the batting but Short departed for just 2 runs. Ajinkya Rahane was also dismissed cheaply for just 5 runs. Fortunately, Sanju Samson provided some much needed support to Buttler with a score of 28.
But that was short-lived as Samson succumbed to Andrew Tye and the rest of the batting order collapsed shortly after. Ben Stokes and Rahul Tripathi trudged back with scores of 12 and 11 respectively. Joffra Archer went for a first ball duck and Krishnappa Gowtham only managed 5 runs. Shreyas Gopal scored 24 runs before being run out and Jaydev Unadkat was the only man standing with 6 runs on the board.
via Imago
Ajinkya Rahane, Rajasthan Royals, IPL 2018
When the Kings XI Punjab took up the willow in the changeover, opener KL Rahul raced away immediately. Danger man Chris Gayle was quickly muzzled for 8 runs, as was Mayank Agarwal for 2 runs. Karun Nair lasted a little bit longer at the crease, contributing 31 runs. When he was sent packing, Axar Patel took his place, only to join him later with 4 runs on the scoreboard. Marcus Stoinis was the last player to take to the crease and remained there with Rahane until the end of the innings and victory.
In the bowling end, the Kings XI performed fairly well, with the most expensive player being Ankit Rajpoot with an economy of 12.33. Mujeeb Ur Rahman bagged 3 wickets with an economy of 6.75. Stoinis was the only bowler without a scalp to his name in this match. For the Royals, Joffra Archer was the most expensive bowler with an economy of 11.73. Jaydev Unadkat and Shreyas Gopal ended up with no wickets but managed to restrict the score to an extent. In Archer’s 3.4 overs, he gave away 43 runs, including the winning runs to Punjab.
