RR Vs PBKS: Punjab lions shine in Jaipur, Rajasthan's princely states defeated at home

Punjab Kings have further enhanced their playoffs claim for the IPL-2025 after beating Rajasthan Royals by 10 runs in Sunday's first match. Punjab, batting first, made 219 runs for five wickets in 20 overs courtesy of solid performances by Nehal Wadhera (70), Shashank Singh (59 not out). The Rajasthan team managed to make only 209 runs for seven wickets in 20 overs.

With that, Punjab stands at 17 points with eight victories against three defeats in 12 matches. It is now a point behind a place in the playoffs. The playoff race for Rajasthan was already over. They now have only a single match to play.

Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Suryavanshi gave a turbulent start to Rajasthan, pursuing the target of 220 runs. Both of them carried the team score to 50 in a mere 2.5 overs. This is the quickest half-century by any team in this season. The first setback to Rajasthan was provided by Harpreet Brar as he sent Vaibhav packing in the fifth ball of the fifth over. The player who was dismissed with a total score of 75, made a score of 40 off 15 balls.

Yashasvi got out after scoring a half-century. He scored 50 runs in 25 balls with the help of nine fours and a six. After his departure, Rajasthan's innings collapsed. Captain Sanju Samson was out after scoring 20 runs. Only 13 runs came off Riyan Parag's bat. Shimron Hetmyer also could not go beyond 11 runs.

Dhruv fought in the end but his innings failed. He scored 53 runs with the help of three fours and four sixes in 31 balls. He was dismissed by Marco Jansen. Jansen also sent Wanindu Hasaranga to the pavilion. Both these wickets fell on the third and fifth balls of the last over.

Earlier, Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh tried to give a fast start to the team. As soon as they came, both started batting. Priyansh could not take his innings beyond nine runs. He became the victim of Tushar Deshpande. Mitchell, who came as a substitute for Glenn Maxwell, could not do wonders in the over as well and became the victim of Quen Mfaka without opening the account. Tushar dismissed Prabhsimran on the first ball of the fourth over.

Shreyas Iyer, who came to bat at number four, could only score 30 runs in 25 balls. Nehal and Shashank then took the responsibility and scored runs quickly. Nehal was looking to score a century, but Akash Madhwal dashed his hopes. Nehal scored 70 runs in 37 balls with the help of five fours and five sixes. After his departure, Shashank scored runs quickly. Shashank faced 30 balls in his innings and hit five fours and three sixes. Azmatullah Omarzai scored 21 runs in nine balls which included three fours and a six.