Mullanpur, Apr 28 (PTI) Marcus Stoinis muscled his way to a 20-ball half-century, completely nullifying a gallant effort from young leg-spinner Yash Raj Punja as Punjab Kings posted a competitive 222 for 4 against Rajasthan Royals in an IPL match here on Tuesday.
While Punjab’s top three — Prabhsimran Singh (59 off 44 balls), Priyansh Arya (29 off 11 balls) and Cooper Connolly (30 off 14 balls) — all looked dangerous, but none of them went on to play a big knock on a track that was hard and offered appreciable bounce.
It was Stoinis, who bludgeoned his way to an unbeaten 22-ball 62 with a half a dozen of sixes and four boundaries as Royals gave away as many as 55 runs in last three overs. Inexperienced Brijesh Sharma’s (0/42 in 4 overs) pace-off ploy backfired with 24 coming off the final over of the innings.
Stoinis, who hasn’t really been summoned this season, was all about brute power and Royals bowlers, including the dependable Jofra Archer (1/40), were guilty of bowling length balls inside his hitting arc.
However, credit should go to unheralded Yash Raj (2 for 41 in 4 overs), a 6 feet 4 inches tall leg-spinner for varying his pace, not being afraid to flight and alter the length as and when required and keeping things tight till the 16th over.
Just when Connolly was cutting loose with some delectable strokeplay, Yash Raj got the Australian against the run of play by flighting one outside the off-stump asking the batter to fetch it. The result was an easy catch for Donovan Ferreira at long-off.
Prabhsimran, despite scoring a half-century and hitting six boundaries and a six, wasn’t very smooth with his timing. Yash Raj, whose average speed was in early 90s (kmph), slowed it down and enticed Prabhsimran to throw the kitchen sink without being anywhere close to the pitch of the delivery. The catch was cleanly collected by Riyan Parag. PTI KHS KHS PDS
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