Mujeeb, Rahul help KXIP to back on top three

Kings XI Punjab back on winning track after two consecutive losses, to handed a six-wicket defeat to Rajasthan Royals at Holker Cricket Stadium, Indore on Sunday (May 6). Thanks to Mujeeb Ur Rahman's 3 for 27 and KL Rahul's 84* off 54 balls to helped KXIP back on top three in points table.

KL Rahul-The new finisher for KXIP



KXIP's runs chase completely dominated by KL Rahul. He took the responsibility when Chris Gayle couldn't fire in this match. KXIP lost Gayle and Mayank Agarwal on 29 in the fifth over. That was the time when Punjab needed Rahul to play through the innings. He put on a 50-run partnership with Karun Nair before Nair bowled out by Anureet Singh. Nair made 31 off 23 balls. KXIP promoted Axer Patel at no. 5 but this move didn't work for Punjab as Patel could only manage 4 off 5 balls before Krishnappa Gowtham got him out. Rahul needed a partner who could play along with him and he found it in Marcus Stoinis. The duo of Rahul and Stoinis put on an unbeaten 68-runs stand for the fifth wicket. Rahul scored his last 36 runs in just 11 balls and finished the game in style.

Mujeeb Ur Rahman-The game changer

Rajasthan Royals were looking good at the halfway stage despite losing D'Arcy Short and skipper Ajinkya Rahane. In fact, they were 100 for 3 after 12.4 overs. But then Mujeeb changed the game completely by picking Ben Stokes and well set Jos Buttler in successive overs and followed Jofra Archer for first ball duck. However, Buttler got his second consecutive fifty and made 51 off 39 balls with 7 fours.



Royals couldn't recover from Stokes and Buttler's wicket and reduced to 128 for 8 after 17 overs. However, Shreyas Gopal played a short cameo of 24 off 16 balls but that didn't prove enough to lift RR to a big total.

Mujeeb finished his spell with impressive numbers of 4-0-27-3 and awarded Man Of The Match for his brilliant spin bowling.

A day to forget for Jofra Archer



It had been excellent first three-matches for Archer where he got 7 wickets in those matches. But today was a different day for him. Rahul took charge on him and scored 24 off 10 balls, he faced from Archer. Overall Archer conceded 43 runs in 3.4 overs and took a wicket of Chris Gayle. Anureet Singh, who replaced Dhawal Kulkarni in this match, given away 20 runs in 2 overs he bowled.

Familiar failure for Rajasthan

When IPL did start, Rajasthan Royals were definitely looking the contender of top three (still they can make it). But their batting let them down despite a few matches. Royal has the players who ruled the players' auction earlier in this year. Jaydev Unadkat who was bought in 12.5 crores by RR, hasn't been impressive so far. Stokes was also big buy but he let RR down both with bat and ball. So does Ajinkya Rahane and Rahul Tripathi. Royals yet to play 4 matches and to qualify for the playoffs, their batsmen need to fire in each match.

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