In the 52nd match of IPL 2022, Rajasthan Royals defeated Punjab Kings by six wickets at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday. Equal contributions by Rajasthan Royals batters made the chase successful after Yuzvendra Chahal took three wickets. 

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Chasing a 190 runs target, left-handed batter Yashasvi Jaiswal (68 off 41 balls) provided a solid start while Jos Buttler (30 off 16 balls) played the second fiddle. On the opening wicket, RR managed 46 runs as Kagiso Rabada removed Buttler in the fourth over. The England cricketer hit five boundaries and a six during his short stay at the crease.

The next batter captain Sanju Samson started going after the Punjab Kings bowlers from the very beginning of his innings. Samson scored 23 off 12 balls with four boundaries. He was dismissed by Rishi Dhawan in the ninth over.

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Jaiswal, who came to open the innings in place of Devdutt Padikall, played the role of the sheet anchor. While safeguarding his end, he played exquisite boundaries and sixes to rotate the strike. The southpaw managed a strike rate of 165 before Arshdeep Singh got the better of him reducing RR to 141 for 3 in 14.2 overs.

Devdutt Padikall (31 off 32 balls not out) and Shimron Hetmyer (31 off 16 not out) took the Royals home in this high scoring game. Between the two batters, Hetmyer was more aggressive and hit three boundaries and two sixes. Off his two sixes, Hetmyer whipped Rabada for a six in the 18th over and in the final over of the chase, he hit another off Rahul Chahar as RR completed a thumping victory over Punjab Kings. 

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Earlier, batting first, Jonny Bairstow (56 off 40 balls) laid the foundation for Punjab Kings’ innings. But after Yuzvendra Chahal trapped him in front, PBKS lost wickets at regular intervals. Shikhar Dhawan and Bhanuka Rajapaksa fell to Ravichandran Ashwin and Chahal, who got his third when captain Mayank Agarwal edged to wicketkeeper Buttler.

Though Jitesh Sharma scored 38 runs off 18 balls, tight spells by Chahal, Ashwin and Trent Boult restricted PBKS to 189 for 5 in 20 overs. Boult went wicketless but conceded just 36 runs in four overs, Chahal was the most successful with three wickets. He conceded just 28 runs.  Ashwin gave away 32 runs in his quota of four overs.

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This was RR’s seventh win in 11 matches. For Punjab, it was their sixth defeat.