Kings XI Punjab won in a most exciting contest so far in the IPL 2015 to beat Rajasthan Royals in Ahmedabad. Kxip held their nerve in the pressure situation and won the game in the first super-over of this year's IPL.
Earlier Virender Sehwag, who captained the side for this match for Kxip replacing inform George Bailey came out for the toss. Sehwag after winning the toss decided to bowl first. Rahane, who is in sublime form this season along with skipper Shane Watson gave Rajasthan Royals a started they wanted after losing the toss. RR were 95 for no loss at the end of 11 overs before Watson was stumped by Axar Patel. Rahane was looking solid at the other end and young Deepak Hooda was promoted one down in the batting order. He capitalized on the start which was given by the openers scoring some quick runs. He played a cameo and departed. Steven Smith went for a duck, then wickets started to fall in quick succession, but that didn't stop RR to score runs and their innings ended on 191 for 8.
It was a challenging total for Kxip with the kind of a form in which RR bowlers are. Unlike RR openers, Sehwag and Vijay failed to give Kxip a scintillating start to chase a mammoth total of 192. Shaun Marsh, who got the opportunity in the side for replacing injured George Bailey came to the rescue of their team. Glenn Maxwell once again failed to deliver and got out scoring just one run. Kxip were in a deep trouble at that stage, but with Miller and Marsh on the crease game was not yet over.
Praveen Tambe and Chris Morris had tied up Kxip batsmen's hand bowling a tight line. The required run rate was over 10 when Miller came to bat and from there on he along with Marsh started the counter attack. Once the big overs started to come for Kxip, they came back in the game fiercely, pressure started building up on RR bowlers. Tambe took the wicket of Marsh at the crucial stage and the game got more interesting. Wriddhiman Saha came out to bat with a belligerent attitude and scored quick 19, just when when it was looking like Kxip will win it easily, Miller and Saha both went back to the pavilion and it came down to 15 in the last over with Axar Patel and Mitchell Johnson on the crease. James Faulkner bowled the last over, no boundaries were conceded in the first 5 balls by Faulkner and 5 were needed in 1 ball. Axar Patel played a brilliant lofted shot with ball pitching just inside the rope and the scores were level.
In One- over eliminator, the ball was handed over to Chris Morris by Watson with Kxip came to bat first. Miller went out on the first ball of the super-over, Maxwell then joined Shaun Marsh. With the help of three cracking boundaries of Marsh's bat, Kxip gave 16 runs in one over to win for RR.
Mitchell Johnson came to bowl for Kxip, he knocked out Shane Watson on the first ball of the RR's reply. Smith scored a boundary of no-ball and on the third ball Kxip won the game, with Faulkner too losing his wicket. One-over elimination gave RR their first lost of the season.
Scorecard:
Rajasthan Royals- 191/6 in 20 overs (Ajinkya Rahane 74, Shane Watson 45, Axar Patel 2/30)
Kings XI Punjab- 191/6 in 20 overs (Shaun Marsh 65, David Miller 54, Praveen Tambe 1/20) won in one over eliminator
Player of the Match- Shaun Marsh