Mohali: Rajasthan Royals produced an all-round show as they spanked Kings XI Punjab by 43 runs to snap their four-match losing streak in the Indian Premier League here on Saturday.
Electing to bat, Rajasthan posted a challenging 177 for six with all their top-order batsmen, barring Ajinkya Rahane, contributing and then restricted KXIP to 134 for eight at the PCA Stadium on which the ball came nicely on to the bat.
Chasing 178 for a win, KXIP were in the game only for a brief while when opener Shaun Marsh (34) was going great guns with some lusty hits but once he was out in the ninth over it was all over for the home side as they lost wickets at regular intervals.
The match was as good as over by the 15th over when KXIP were 97 for five and the asking rate had shot up 16 an over.
Johan Botha, Shane Watson and Shaun Tait scalped two KXIP batsmen each while Siddarth Trivedi and Stuart Binny took a wicket each.
With the win today, Rajasthan jumped to the fifth spot in the league table with 10 points from 11 matches while KXIP occupy the sixth place with same 10 points from 11 matches but one rung down on lesser net run rate. KXIP were on the backfoot early with opener Mandeep Singh falling to Watson in the second over as his pull shot went straight to mid-on fielder Siddarth Trivedi. (PTI)
