Faulkner stars in Rajasthan’s victory over Punjab - The 3rd match of the Indian Premiere League was played between Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab. Last time the Kings XI Punjab were able to reach the final of the tournament and were looking for a start which would help they get to the same result once again. This match was being played at the stadium of Pune. After winning the toss Kings XI Punjab decided to field first.
The Kings XI Punjab got a great start to the game as they were successful in taking many wickets in the start. Ajinkya Rahane and Sanju Samson failed to provide the team a good start. They fell for 0 and 5 runs respectively. In the 3rd over Rajasthan Royals were struggling at 14 runs for 2 wickets. Karun Nair too failed with the bat as he scored only 8 runs before losing his wicket. Rajasthan were struggling at 35-3 in 6th over. Steven Smith and Stuart Binny rebuilt the innings taking the team to a score of 74. The 11th over saw both the batsmen getting out. Deepak Hooda and James Faulkner turned the tables around for Rajasthan as they took the score to 162. Hooda scored 30 runs while Faulkner scored 46. Anureet Singh took 3 wickets for the team.
Punjab needed a good start but they failed to do so. Virender Sehwag Wriddhiman Saha and Glenn Maxwell lost their wickets quickly. They scored 0,7 and 7 respectively. Murali Vijay and Axar Patel batted and took the team on track they scored 37 and 24 respectively before losing the wicket. David Miller and George Bailey scored 23 and 24 runs. The Punjab team managed to take the team on track but then Rajasthan struck back hard taking wickets quickly and raising the pressure and hence at the end team failed to score the required runs. Punjab ended their innings at 136 runs. At the end Rajasthan won the match by 26 runs. Faulkner took 3 wickets in the match.
James Faulkner was named as the man of the match for his all-round performance. Deepak Hooda won the Yes Bank maximum Sixes award.