RR needed 186 runs to win as Ben Stokes brought up the fastest fifty for any team in the season. He zoomed past fifty in 24 balls, hitting 6 fours and 3 sixes.
But KXIP managed to get a much-needed breakthrough in the final over of the powerplay after Stokes got out off Chris Jordan’s bowling.
RR needed 40 runs off the last five overs to seal a win and they scored 29 of those in the next two overs.
The duo of Smith and Buttler closed out the match in the 18th over as RR completed a fine run-chase for the second time in a row and kept their playoff hopes alive.
Chris Gayle, the Kings XI Punjab batsman, was also fined 10 percent of his match-fee for breaching the Dream11 Indian Premier League’s (IPL) Code of Conduct during the match. Also Read | Rajasthan Govt. introduces bills to revoke impact of Centre’s farm lawsGayle admitted to the Level 1 offence 2.2 of the IPL’s Code of Conduct and accepted the sanction.
For Level 1 breaches of the Code of Conduct, the Match Referee’s decision is final and binding.
Brief Scores: Rajasthan Royals 186/3 (Ben Stokes 50, Sanju Samson 48; Murugan Ashwin 1/43) beat Kings XI Punjab 185/4 (Chris Gayle 99, KL Rahul 46; Jofra Archer 2/26) by seven wickets.
-PTC News-