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Royals power to win against poor KXIP

Rajasthan Royals  beat the Kings XI Punjab by six wickets in Mohali on Sunday.

With the win Royals moved up third in the table. Shane Watson and Ajinkya Rahane starred with the bat and Sresaanth bowled really well to win the match for the home side.

Earlier, a disciplined Rajasthan Royals picked up wickets at regular intervals to bowl out Kings XI Punjab for a paltry 124.

S Sreesanth (2/20), Siddharth Trivedi (2/21), James Faulkner (2/30) and Kevon Cooper (2/33) utilised the greenish top of the Sawai Man Singh Stadium to perfection and shared eight wickets between them to bowl out Kings XI in 18.5 overs.

David Hussey top-scored for the Punjab outfit with a 31-ball 41, while Azhar Mahmood made 23 off 20 balls. Praveen Kumar (15 off 7) played a short cameo towards the end to take Kings XI past the 120-run mark.

Sreesanth justified Rajasthan skipper Rahul Dravid’s decision to bowl first as he picked up two wickets in the second over of the innings to rattle the Punjab side.

Kings XI captain Adam Gilchrist’s torrid time with the bat continued as he became Sreesanth’s first victim, caught by Trivedi for a duck in just the second ball of the pacer’s opening over. Three balls later, Sreesanth struck again when Mandeep Singh slashed one to Stuart Binny at third man.

To make matters worse, Manan Vohra was run out by a direct hit from Faulkner as Kings XI found itself in a spot of bother at 10 for three.

Hussey and new man in Gurkeerat Singh (10) shared 35 runs off 31 balls for the fourth wicket before the latter perished, caught by debutant wicketkeeper Sanju Samson off Trivedi.

Hussey and Rajagopal Satish (11) then added 22 runs for the fifth wicket before Satish was brilliantly caught by Samson off Faulkner. Kings XI were dealt a severe blow in the next over when Hussey became Trivedi’s second victim of the day, caught by Dravid at mid off. Hussey hit four fours and a six.

Cooper also registered his name among wickets dismissing Piyush Chawla and Mahmood towards the end before Faulkner drew curtains to the Kings XI innings with seven balls to spare.

Ajinkya Rahane was happy with his performance. ‘We needed to win this match and I’m glad things well good today.’
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