Guwahati: While it was the first home match for Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2023 at their adopted home- the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati, Punjab Kings had the last laugh at this venue on Wedesday. The 2014 IPL finalists beat the inaugural champions and last year runners up by 5 runs in match number 8 of the 2023 edition of the tournament.

Even though Punjab did not win the toss, they dominated much of the contest with captain Shikhar Dhawan leading from the front with his unbeatean record-breaking 86. His innings along with Prabhsimran Singh’s quickfire 60 off 34 balls laid the foundation of what eventually turned out to be a match-winning 197/4.

Jitesh Sharma also made a useful contribution worth 27 off 16. However, Punjab, who looked set to get past the 200-run mark for the most part of his innings couldn’t breach that mark largely owing to Jason Holder’s 2 for 29 and R Ashwin’s 1 for 25.

In the run-chase, Rajasthan decided to send in R Ashwin to open when Jos Buttler had injured himself but the plan backfired and RR lost two wickets in quick succession when after Yashasvi Jaiswal’s wicket, Ashwin got out for a duck. Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson were striking at a good rate but couldn’t get a big innings under their belt.

While Arshdeep Singh provided the initial breakthroughs for Punjab, it was Nathan Ellis who emerged as the team’s pick of the bowlers, scalping 4 wickets for 30 runs. In the end, Shimron Hetmyer (36 off 18) and Dhruv Jurel’s cameo did ignite hopes of Rajasthan getting over the line but in the end, Punjab bowlers held their nerves to come out on top with Sam Curran bowling a superb final over to successfully defend 16 runs.

This is the second win on the trot for Punjab Kings who had defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by 7 runs (DLS method) in Mohali in their first game. Rajasthan too had thrashed Sunrisers Hyderabad by 72 runs in their first match but couldn’t repeat a similar performance in this game.