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Abu Dhabi: Rajasthan Royals (RR) won the toss and chose to bowl against Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in the 50th match of 2020 Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium on Friday. With a steady partnership of KXIP skipper KL Rahul and Chirs Gayle following Nicholas Pooran's strike, KXIP could score 185 runs at a loss of 4 wickets. RR got a winning target of 186 runs.
KXIP skipper KL Rahul and Mandeep Singh were the opening batsmen. In a big blow to KXIP, Jofra Archer dismissed the first wicket of Punjab in the last ball of the first over.
After the downfall of the first wicket, Chris Gayle entered the arena to support Rahul. The steady partnership of the duo took KXIP's total score to 53 runs by the end of the powerplay.
In the halfway mark, Rahul and Gayle's unbeaten partnership helped KXIP to score 81 runs at a loss of one wicket.
Meanwhile, Gayle scored a half-century off 34 balls with 4 boundaries and 4 sixes. It was Gayle's 31st IPL half-century.
KXIP post a total score of a hundred in the 13th over. Gayle was at 61 runs while Rahul was at 39 runs off 34 deliveries.
However, Ben Stokes dismissed Rahul in the 15th over breaking the long-standing partnership. Rahul could score 46 runs off 40 balls.
Though Nicholas Pooran took a great stand for increasing the team's total score, Stokes dismissed him in the 18th over. Pooran could score 22 runs off 9 deliveries. With this, Stokes took his second wicket in the match. With the dismissal of Pooran in the last ball of 18th over, KXIP was 162/3.
With back-to-back strikes, Gayle took the team's score to 184. But unfortunately, after scoring 99, he was dismissed by Jofra Archer in the 4th ball of last over.
Glenn Maxwell scored 6 runs off 6 balls while Deepak Hooda scored only one run in the last ball taking the team's total score to 185 runs at a loss of 4 wickets.
KXIP are looking to get closer to booking a playoff spot by continuing their winning run.
RR have brought in fast bowler Varun Aaron in place of Ankit Rajpoot. Meanwhile, KXIP has retained the XI that played in their previous game, and that means that opener Mayank Agarwal will miss this match too.
Kings XI Punjab: KL Rahul (captain/wicket-keeper), Mandeep Singh, Chris Gayle, Nicholas Pooran, Glenn Maxwell, Deepak Hooda, Chris Jordan, Murugan Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh
Rajasthan Royals: Robin Uthappa, Ben Stokes, Steven Smith (captain), Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper), Jos Buttler, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Varun Aaron, Kartik Tyagi
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