MOHALI – Man-of-the-Match Shimron Hetmyer swatted a thigh-high full toss over the ropes at backward square as Rajasthan Royals beat Punjab Kings by three wickets with a ball to spare in the Indian Premier League on Saturday.
With the leaders requiring ten runs from the final over sent down by left-arm seamer Arshdeep Singh, the left-handed Hetmyer belted the third delivery for a straight six, scrambled a couple to long on off the next delivery before clobbering the fifth for the second six of the over.
Hetmyer ended on a 10-ball unbeaten 27, which included a four and two sixes, and proved to be turning point of the game after his West Indies captain Rovman Powell (11) and Keshav Maharaj (1) both perished in the penultimate over to England left-arm pacer Sam Curran (2-25).
Royals’ pursuit of 148 at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium had started well with Yashasvi Jaiswal (29) and Tanush Kotian (24) posting 56 for the first wicket and captain Sanju Samson (18) arriving to add a further 26 for the second wicket with Jaiswal.
Jaiswal’s dismissal in the 12th over sparked a decline that saw four wickets tumble for 33 runs, and which nearly derailed the run chase.
Sent in earlier, Kings struggled to 147 for eight off their 20 overs, substitute Ashutosh Sharma top-scoring with a rapid 16-ball 31 at number eight and wicketkeeper Jitesh Sharma getting 29 from 24 balls.
The innings was lagging at 70 for five at the start of the 13th over before Jitesh and England’s Liam Livingstone (21) put on 33 for the sixth.
CMC