Punjab Kings suffer first defeat of season as Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag power Rajasthan Royals to winning total | Ipl News

Yashasvi Jaiswal’s furious 67 and Riyan Parag’s crafty 43 propelled Rajasthan Royals to 205/4 before Jofra Archer’s stunning double-strike in the first over deflated the chase.On a pitch that got increasingly slower, Yashasvi Jaiswal’s violent start had set up Rajasthan before Riyan Parag ensured they would finish strongly with a well-composed knock tailored to the track. Much depended on Shreyas Iyer in the chase to tackle the vagaries of the pitch, but Jofra Archer took him out in the first over. Nehal Wadhera and Glenn Maxwell tried a he with a 88-run stand, but Punjab Kings succumbed to their first defeat this edition, losing 50 runs.
Archer’s stunning double strike
Such is his rhythmically graceful action, that Archer raises an illusion that there is no ball in his hands as he delivers. There is a lack of effort, no visual jerk of effort at release or audible grunt – just a smooth pizzaz about it all. Everything is in straight lines – the arm, the ball, the tramline but with a flip of the last-instant wr, he can get it to either climb from short of length or zip off a fuller length. His first over itself damaged Punjab’s chase rather spectacularly.

Archer on
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The very first ball dismantled the talented youngster Priyansh Arya: a length delivery that vroomed off a good length, tilting from the middle stump to peg back the off stump, past a hesitant prod. Shreyas, in great form, unfurled two gorgeous boundaries over covers but a short ball down leg, albeit a wide, had him thinking. The next ball was a back-of-length delivery around off stump that was bunted away. Shreyas likes to predetermine some of his shots in the white-ball format, and he set himself up for the next delivery for a big shot opening up his stance and clearing his front leg. It wasn’t the short ball, neither was it a back of length but a fuller-length ball at the stumps. Shreyas tried to hack it, but the stumps were hacked.
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And when Sandeep Sharma induced a return catch from Marcus Stoinis with a ball that seemed to stop a touch in the fourth over, Punjab were 26 for 3, and gasping for breath. The next big jolt was delivered the impact substitute, Kumar Kartikeya in the 7th over. He lured Prabhsimran Singh to hole out to deep square-leg and Punjab were up against it from that point on.
Jaiswal’s fury
It was the third ball of the third over that seemed to have turned the tide for Jaiswal. He tried to heave on the up but the back-of-length ball from Arshdeep climbed a bit higher. Somehow, Jaiswal managed to get the ball just over a leaping Shreyas at mid-on. That made him change his tactic – he began to clear his front leg a bit more and get a nice, uninhibited bat swing going. The very next ball he cleared Shreyas that much more comfortably and soon was swinging away with gay abandon.
It’s his characteric trait that he doesn’t leave anything left in the tank when he goes for his booming drives. Unlike a few who can give the impression that they are holding back or trying to time more than muscle, Jaiswal gives it his all – the bat flows through in a violent arc, often doing the full arc in the follow-through. Marco Jansen and Craig Ferguson were clattered for sixes over deep square-leg.

Flamboyant Knock
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Not that he predetermines or swings blindly; Punjab’s seamers began to bowl a lot of slower ones at him. He would wait, not commit early, but once he decided it’s time to go, the bat will flash hard and full. Marcus Stoinis was heaved for a six and a four and a couple of slow flighted sorties from Yuzvendra Chahal were walloped to long-off and over long-on boundary. It was a knuckleball slower one from Ferguson that eventually led to his dismissal as for the first time he went a touch early and that fierce full bat swing made him lose his shape a touch, and he missed the ball completely to lose his stumps.
Crafty Parag
For his first fourteen balls, apart from a top-edged boundary, Parag kept nurdling the ball around, trying to find his way against a slew of cutters from the seamers. The pitch had slowed up, and Punjab had found that cutters were the way to go. Then came another edged four that sort of set him free. He smashed the next ball in the same over from Arshdeep Singh to the straight boundary and smoked Jansen for successive sixes – the first was thrown back from long-off and then from fine-leg. In the final over, off Stoinis, he added another six, smashing a slower short ball over midwicket. The 23-ball 45, along with Dhruv Jurel’s biffed hits in the final over, pushed Rajasthan to a strong 205 on a pitch that had turned a touch sluggish with spongy bounce.Story continues below this ad
Wadhera-Maxwell raise hopes
There was a moment in the 13th over when Maxwell, on 24, failed to connect with a flick down leg side ball from Yudhvir Singh. Samson, who ‘caught’ the ball was convinced of an edge and called for DRS, but found no luck. At the end of the over, the equation read 96 from 42 and it seemed gettable as the duo were starting to fire. But the 88-run partnership between the impressive Wadhera, who was hailed as ‘Ludhiana ka Yuvraj’ in his developmental years, and Maxwell ended soon. In the last ball of the 15th over, Maxwell toe-ended a big hit off Maheesh Theekshana to long-off and Wadhera combusted next ball, dragging a outside-off googly from Wanindu Hasaranga to deep midwicket where Jurel took a sharp catch. Game over.

Brief scores: RR 205/4 (Jaiswal 67, Parag 43, Ferguson 2/37) beat PBKS 155/9 (Wadhera 62, Archer 3/25) 50 runs