Jofra Archer has backed up his batters with the ball in hand after Rajasthan Royals posted 205/4 batting first against Punjab Kings in Mullanpur on Saturday.
The repair work for the Royals was done by the lower-order with Riyan Parag (43* off 25 balls) Shimron Hetmyer (20 runs off 12 balls) and Dhruv Jurel (13 runs off five balls).
In the end the batters helepd the team post a huge total of 205/4 in their 20 overs. Jofra Archer came steaming in his very first over with the ball. He dimissed Priyansh Arya for a golden duck in the very first ball of the Punjab Kings chase.
That brought PBKS skipper Shreyas Iyer ( 10 runs off five balls) into the crease at three. He started by hitting a boundary off Archer but was cleaned up on the fifth delivery off his first over. Iyer saw his stumps being rattled as he tried to play across the line. PBKS could not recover after the loss of early wickets and after 10 overs are 78/4.
Jofra Archer's Early Wickets Pegs PBKS Back In Record Chase
After Archer's double-strike in his very first over, the rest of the Royals bowlers also came into the game. Sandeep Sharma dismissed the dangerous Marcus Stoinis (1 run off seven balls) in his very first over. The big wicket inside the first 10 overs was that of Prabhsimran Singh who was dismissed in his very first over by Kumar Kartikeya who came in as the impact sub. Thus the RR batters lost wickets at regular intervals and thus did not get any momentum in the run-chase of 206.
The Royals have already lost four wickets inside the first 10 overs and now are way behind in the match. Glenn Maxwell ( 14 runs off nine balls) and Nehal Wadhera (29 runs off 22 balls) are batting for the Kings and they need to play brilliantly from here on to to take the team over the line. The Kings are topping the IPL 2025 points table so far in the tournament. However, it looks like they will be going down in this first game in Mullanpur where they have just one game in the IPL since 2024.
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