Sharjah: Rajasthan Royals (RR) beat Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in a high scoring thriller in Sharjah on Sunday. The Royals have broken their previous record of the highest successful run chase after clinching this match in the final overs.
Rajasthan Royals have made two changes to their squad with Jos Buttler and Ankit Rajpoot coming in for youngster Yashasvi Jaiswal and South African batsman David Miller.
Kings XI Punjab have decided to go with the same XI that beat Royal Challengers Bangalore which means that veteran batsman Chris Gayle remains out despite the short boundaries on offer at Sharjah.
Steve Smith has won the toss against Kings XI Punjab and elected to bowl first. But the decision did not go as planned in the beginning after KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal put up 183 runs of opening partnership for KXIP. Agarwal scored a century. Pooran’s final over hitting helped KXIP pose a mammoth total of 223.
Chasing a stiff 224 for a win, the Royals needed 51 runs from the last three overs and it seemed the fate of the match was already sealed but Tewatia (53 of 31 balls and 7 sixes) turned the match on its head in a dramatic fashion, taking 30 runs from Sheldon Cottrell in the 18th over.
It was the highest successful run-chase in IPL history, bettering the earlier record which also belongs to Royals, who had hit 217 while chasing 215 against Deccan Chargers in 2008.