The 9th match of DREAM11 IPL 2020, saw an epic run chase of 223 from Rajasthan Royals against Kings XI Punjab , which is also the most successful runchase in the history of IPL ever.
There had been lots of crests and troughs in the graph of the match.
Winning the toss Captain Steve Smith , chose to field first backing their strong batting line-up. Skipper KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal started off very well for the Kings XI Punjab. They fastened to their hundred runs stand in just 9 overs. They were 102-0 after 9. The bowlers really looked muddled in search of wickets. Mayank took the charge of hitting the big one’s and KL looked steady and sheer on his timings. Mayank Agarwal whooped to a very fast 100 off just 47 balls and then later got out for 106 of 50 deliveries. KXIP were on 183 when Mayank fell. Maxwell was the one who came in next and tried to hit a few fancy shots. Kl Rahul tried to take the game till the end but found him caught in the third man region of a wide Yorker. Later Nicholas pooran and Glen Maxwell boosted the innings with a few sixes and fours to take the total to 223-2 after 20 overs.
Jos Buttler looked very fresh after his quarantine days and was on the field padded up with skipper Steve Smith as the openers. Smudge tried to attack the bowlers right from the first over and was successful too. But Jos Buttler after struggling a few deliveries was caught on the on side inside the 30 yard circle to witness a salute! Sanju Samson and Steve Smith accelerated the runchase as RR landed upto 100 runs mark in the 9th over. But soon the in-form Steve Smith went out hitting one of Jimmy Neesham in the deeps. Rahul Tewatia, who had come in looked very struggling against Ravi Bishnoi. At one point, He was on 5 of 13 deliveries. Pressure was building on Sanju Samson and he tried to whack as many as possible but soon after hitting a few out of the park he was caught in the deeps with a fabulous 85. It was Robbie who came in . Whacked a few boundaries scored 9 but got out again. Sheldon Cottrel came to bowl the 18th over but only if he knew the unpredictable would have take place. Rahul Tewatia hit him for 5 sixes in that over and All I could wish was a return Salute as an avenge to what he did to Buttler. Things became very easy for them when Jofra archer too attacked the Md Shami in the next over from the other end. 9 required from 9 and then it landed upto 2 required from the last over with Rahul Tewatia caught in the last over for a splendid yet miraculous 53 of 31. Riyan Parag came in and got out early to Murugwan Ashwin just missing his golden duck by a delivery. Tom Curran comes in, lofts over cover for a beautiful boundary to win the chase with 3 balls remaining. What a game of cricket we witnessed.