IPL 2021 points table: Royals back in the competition?

Punjab Kings skipper KL Rahul won the toss & chose to field first against Rajasthan Royals, yesterday. Moreover, Ishan Porel, Aiden Markram and Adil Rashid makes their debut in IPL for Punjab Kings. On the other side, Evin Lewis and Liam Livingstone makes their debut for Rajasthan Royals. Debutant Ishan Porel opened the bowling along with senior partner Mohammed Shami. However, they could not prevent a great start for the Royals as Yashasvi Jaiswal and Evin Lewis got off to a flier with the bat. Jaiswal scored 49 runs in 36 balls with the help of 6 fours and 2 big sixes. Rajasthan's opening batsman gives a powerful start to their side as both of them knocks out each and every bowler out of the park.

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Eventually, the partnership was broken by Arshdeep Singh in the sixth over of the first innings. Ishan Porel was able to take the valuable wicket of Sanju Samson in his third over. Royals completed 100 runs in just 11 overs. With a sight of a 200+ score in the first inning, Jaiswal and Livingstone kept on hitting regular boundaries. Even Adil Rashid went to the fences many times. Once both of them got out (Livingstone 25, Jaiswal 49).

And it was Mahipal Lormor, who took the initiative for the Royals. Lormor looked dangerous for his 43 off 17 balls with four sixes and two fours. But, after the fall of Lomror, it was all about Shami and Arshdeep Singh who cleaned up the tail for the Punjab team. Royals fell like a house of cards as Arshdeep claimed his first five-wicket haul in IPL and Shami took another three wickets in the death. Arshdeep finished with a career best 4-32-5. Royals fell down to 185/10 in 20 overs.

The Chase from Punjab Kings :

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Coming to chase a huge total of 186 runs in 20 overs were looking very tough to get. But, skipper KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal starts the charge on the RR bowlers as they were hitting each bowlers out of the park. Although, RR misses a total of 4 catches of skipper KL Rahul. They build a strong opening partnership of 120 runs in just inside 12 overs. After that Rahul got out on 49 runs in 33 deliveries. However, before that Mayank Agarwal get to his half century. The real trouble begins when Mayank got caught in the hands of Liam Livingstone. Punjab was on 126-2 when Agarwal got out.

From there, SA batsman Aiden Markram and Nicholus Pooran takes the charge. As they build a fifty partnership within 30 balls. The chase was looking easy as Pooran and Markram were set in the crease. At a time 8 runs were needed in 10 balls for Punjab Kings. It's looking like PBKS game to win. But, Kartik Tyagi has other plans.

The thrilling final over :

PBKS needed just 4 runs in the last over to seal the match. As Pooran scored 32 runs in 22 balls before he got out on Kartik Tyagi's delivery. Deepak Hooda came to the crease after Pooran got out. But, he also fails to deliver as he got out on a duck after playing two deliveries. With 3 needed in the last delivery Fabian Allen misses the ball and Kartik Tyagi sealed the game for RR.

Tyagi finished with 2 for 29 in his 4 overs. PBKS ended their innings on 183-4 and fell short for just 2 runs. As a result, Rajasthan Royals won the match by 2 runs in the final over. RR now has 8 points from 8 matches and has moved to no. 5 in the IPL points table. While PBKS has falls to No. 7th with 6 points from 9 matches. However, let's look at the points table of IPL 2021 after the thriller between PBKS and RR.

IPL 2021 Points table :

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With this thumping win over PBKS, Rajasthan Royals are back in the race of playoffs with 8 points in as many matches. However, they still have to win at least four matches to stay in the playoffs race.