Rajasthan Royals (RR) won the match from nowhere, it seemed KXIP would be winning the match easily before the raining sixes started coming from the bats of RR batsmen.
Match Scores
1st Innings: Kings XI Punjab (KXIP): 223/3 (20 overs)
2nd Innings: Rajasthan Royals (RR): 226/6 (19.3 overs)
The KXIP players in form KL Rahul & M Agarwal gave KXIP a dream start scoring 183 runs as 16.3 overs. All the RR bowlers were taken apart. N Pooran of KXIP finally joined the party by helping his teams cause with a quickfire cameo of 25 of 8 balls.
In the second innings, RR lost an early wicket of J Buttler. S Smith and S Samson the top scorers of their previous match came good again to score 50 each. Despite their contribution there was a time in the match when it looked that RR would lose the match and then started the raining sixes from the bat of R Tewatia. In the end, they won the match with 3 balls to spare.
Top Performers of the Match
Batsmen:-
M Agarwal (KXIP): 106(50)
S Samson (RR): 84(38)
KL Rahul (KXIP): 69(54)
S Smith (RR): 50(27)
Bowlers:-
M Shami (KXIP): 53/4
R Bishnoi (KXIP): 34/0 (The most economical bowler of the match econ:8.50)
A Rajpoot (RR): 39/1
Special Mention :
R Tewatia, initially it looked like RR will lose the match because of him and a few overs later he was the one who changed the fortunes for RR. He scored 53 runs of 31 balls
Player of the Match
S Samson was declared as the man of the match for his innings of 84. That makes it two in a row for S Samson
Captain's Corner
KL Rahul: He could have kept going with the spinners in the death overs because R Tewatia looked like he was struggling against spin. Honestly, it is easier to judge this decision after seeing the match results.
S Smith: They can try playing R Uthappa at the start to give the veteran player some more time on the crease. J Buttler can come later on to bolter their lower middle order.
Stats Corner
The score of 203 is the highest ever run chase in IPL.
Overall, a match of switching fortunes, KXIP and RR both had a ball while batting. To summarize, we can say an out and out entertainer.