IPL 2023: Rajasthan Royals vs Punjab Kings Match 8 - Talking Points and Who Said What?

Punjab Kings recorded a crucial five-run win over Rajasthan Royals in the eighth match of the Indian Premier League 2023 (IPL) on Wednesday, April 5. Shikhar Dhawan played a captain's knock by smashing an unbeaten 86 off 56 to guide Punjab Kings to a big total of 197/4 while batting first. Then pacers Arshdeep Singh and Nathan Ellis were excellent with a ball to pull off a thrilling win. 

Sanju Samson-led Rajasthan won the toss and invited Punjab Kings to bat first at Guwahati's Barsapara Cricket Stadium. Both teams remained unchanged after recording wins in their respective opening games. Shikhar and Prabhsimran Singh gave Punjab Kings a flying start with a 90-run stand for the opening wicket. Prabhsimran smashed a quick 60 before getting out on Jason Holder's delivery in the tenth over.

But Shikhar's 86* and crucial 27 off 16 from Jitesh Sharma guided Punjab to a challenging total. Rajasthan promoted Ravichandran Ashwin to open innings ahead of Jos Buttler but the move backfired as they lost the top-order within powerplay overs. Samson balanced the game with a 42 off 25 but Nathan Ellis' four wickets and two from Arshdeep Singh stumbled the Royals to 124/6 in 15 overs.

Shimron Hetmyer and Dhruv Jurel, the latter coming in as an impact player, dragged the Royals back into the game by smashing 53 runs in the first three overs of the death overs. The duo needed 16 runs from the last over but Sam Curran was impressive with his last six deliveries to restrict Rajasthan to 192/7.

A failed gamble from Rajasthan Royals to tinker with the top order

Fans were surprised to see Ashwin walking in to open innings with Yashasvi Jaiswal ahead of Buttler. It proved an unnecessary gamble from Rajasthan Royals management as both Yashasvi and Ashwin failed to contribute. Yashasvi and Buttler produced a brilliant start against Sunriser Hyderabad in the last game with Samson also adding a fifty while playing in the no.3 position. But Ashwin's promotion totally disturbed the rhythm the team earned from the first game.

Nathan Ellis to play ahead of Kagiso Rabada?

Kagiso Rabada and Liam Livingstone were expected to start for Punjab Kings after missing the opening game. But the team remained unchanged with Nathan Ellis keeping his place ahead of Rabada. Ellis took four big wickets, including Buttler's and Samson's to prove his selection right. But Rabada, the leading pace wicket-taker in IPL 2022, is expected to start in Punjab Kings' upcoming games. So it will be interesting to see if the Australian pacer keeps the place or start alongside Rabada in the next game.

Losing captain, Sanju Samson said

To be honest, it was a very good track to bat on, not much movement with the new ball and they batted really well, had the momentum in the powerplay. Our bowlers used the variations on a high-scoring wicket and I thought we did well to restrict them to 197. Jos wasn't fully fit (injured his finger while taking the catch), the thinking behind keeping Padikkal (in the middle order) was to tackle their two spinners in the middle overs. The coaches have put a lot of work behind him (on Dhruv Jurel), we had a work week camp before the IPL, but the way they have worked a lot of time in our academies (during off-season), having faced 1000s of balls and I'm happy with the way they're progressing. I was expecting the dew to come in the second innings, but it was evident that it was there right at the start, need to be prepared better for such things in the next game.

Winning captain, Shikhar Dhawan said

There were some nervous moments, I was trying to keep my calm and discussing plans with my bowlers. Was happy with the score we put up. We scoring 197 and my bowlers giving those early wickets and then Nathan came in and bowled supebly. It was a full team effort. These 2 games we got a great start, Prabh did really well and I tried my best to increase my strike-rate. We want to keep the momentum going as we got a good batting line-up. We respect the opponents' bowlers but want to keep the intent and aggression going.

Player of the Match, Nathan Ellis said

Just stoked to get the win, pleased to get some awards but from a team's point of view nice to get that win. In T20 every ball counts, staying in the moment is really the key. When I was bowling in the backend, I was trying to get my variations right and calculate what the best ball is at that time. For me it's cross-seam and it worked out really well tonight.