Brittle middle-order fails Sanju Samson-led Rajasthan yet again

A brittle middle order and consistent failures in the death overs once again bit Sanju Samson's Rajasthan Royals hard on Sunday. They slumped to their 10th loss of the season when they were defeated by Punjab by 10 runs in the Indian Premier League match at Jaipur.

Chasing a stiff target of 220, RR openers Yashasvi Jaiswal (25-ball 50) and Vaibhav Suryavanshi (40 in 15 balls) gave the home side a fiery start, scoring 76 runs in 4.1 overs. At that stage, it looked like the team could make Punjab's life at the top of the table a bit trickier.

But once Suryavanshi was dismissed by impact sub Harpreet Brar (3/22) in the fifth over, Rajasthan fell back to the season's routine.

Jaiswal perished trying to take on the left-arm spin of Brar. Sanju, too, did not last long, holding out to Azmatullah Omarzai for a 16-ball 20. Omarzai (2/44) then landed a second blow, sending back Shimron Hetmyer (11 off 12), as RR's chase lost steam.

Dhruv Jurel (53 off 31 balls) hit form to score his second fifty of the season, but it went in vain as Marco Jansen (2/41 in three overs) removed him and Wanindu Hasaranga in successive balls in the last over to end their chase.

The Punjab side had earlier made 219 for five, riding on an unbeaten of 59 off 30 deliveries (5x4, 3x6) by Shashank and Wadhera (70, 37b, 5x4, 5x6). Skipper Shreyas Iyer added (30 off 25balls) to take the team to a commanding position. 

With this win, PBKS (NRR: +0.38) climbed to 17 points and they are second on the table behind leaders Royal Challengers Bengaluru (17 points, +0.48) on net run rate difference.