The 18th match of the Indian Premier League was played in the city of Ahmedabad. This match was a home match for the Rajasthan Royals who hosted the Kings XI Punjab in Motera. The Royals were running high on confidence as they won all the matches in the tournament till date. Punjab on the other side was struggling to find the finishing touch. In this match after winning the toss Kings XI Punjab decided to field first.
The opening pair of Ajinkya Rahane and Shane Watson gave the team a terrific start. They scored 95 runs for the 1st wicket in 11.3 overs. Watson was the 1st one to leave the crease after scoring 45 runs off 35 balls. David Hooda joined Rahane in the middle to take the team score to 136 in 15 overs. He too lost his wicket after scoring 19 runs off 9 balls. This wicket brought some respite to the Kings as they took a few quick wickets. Rahane lost his wicket in the 18th over after scoring 74 runs in 54 balls. Karun Nair was the only batsman in the lower order that scored 25 runs in 13 balls as the Royals scored 191 runs in 20 overs.
Chasing the big score needs to hit the ball from word go. This was not possible as Kings lost their first wicket in the 2nd over in form of Virender Sehwag who was run out. Shaun Marsh came in to bat in 1st down. He along with Murali Vijay scored some quick runs for the team. Vijay scored 21 runs before losing his wicket in the 7th over. Glenn Maxwell the most promising batsman failed once again as he lost his wicket after scoring only 1 run. The match seemed to be in the bags of Royals but David Miller turned things around for Punjab. He scored 54 runs off 30 balls to take the team to a score of 166 in the 18th over. At the end it was Mitchell Johnson and Axar Patel who worked hard to hit the boundary of the last ball to take it to the super over as they finished at 191.
In the Super Over, Kings XI Punjab started the inning with David Millar and Shaun Marsh. The bowl was in the hand of Chris Morris. On the very first ball of Morris, David Millar lost his wicket. David Miller missed a full toss ball of Morris and he was given LBW by the empire. Then Glen Maxwell came to bat after the dismissal of David Millar. Shaun Marsh did a fabulous job and hit a boundary on the 3rd ball of Chris Morris towards the off-side. It was a no-ball. So, there was a free hit and Shaun Marsh again hit a boundary. Kings XI Punjab had made 10 runs from 3 balls at the loss of 1 wicket. On the 4th ball, Shaun Marsh hit again a boundary to the straight field. Three consecutive boundaries by Shaun Marsh brought Kings XI Punjab in a strong position. On the 5th and 6th ball, Chris Morris did excellent work with the ball and gave only one run off the last 2 balls. Kings XI Punjab made 15 runs from 6 balls and Rajasthan Royals needed 16 runs from 6 balls. That was not going to be easy for Rajasthan Royals.
For Rajasthan Royals, Shane Watson and James Faulkner came onto the ground to bat. The ball was given to Mitchell Johnson. Mitchell Johnson bowled really well and clean bowled Shane Watson from his Yorker delivery. Rajasthan Royals was in big trouble now after losing the first wicket on the first ball. Then, Steven Smith came onto the ground to join James Faulkner. The next ball of Mitchell Johnson was a no-ball. But Smith did no mistake and hit a boundary. So, Rajasthan Royals got 4 runs from a boundary and 1 extra run from no-ball. The total was 5 runs from 1 ball and needed 11 runs from 5 balls. It was a free hit on the next ball but Mitchell Johnson gave only 1 run. Now, 10 runs needed from 4 balls, and Faulkner was on the strike to face Mitchell Johnson. Faulkner tried to hit the ball over the mid-wicket field and missed it. He wanted to take a single but the wicket keeper throws the ball nicely and hit the stamp. Faulkner was given run-out and Rajasthan Royals ended at 6 runs. Kings XI Punjab won the match by 9 runs and Shaun Marsh was given the Man of the Match title. He made 65 runs in the first innings and hit 3 consecutive boundaries in the super over.