IPL 2019: RR vs KXIP - Three unnoticed events from the match

A high-octane encounter that was surrounded by lots of buzzes due to a controversial decision eventually ended in the Kings XI Punjab's favor. Amidst, all the chaos and havoc, Ravichandran Ashwin's men got better of the Rajasthan Royals and won their first match of the IPL 12 at the Sawai Mansingh stadium.

Rajasthan Royals won the toss and asked the visitors to bat first. Chris Gayle and KL Rahul came out to open the innings for the Kings XI Punjab. The latter had to soon return back to the dugout as he was dismissed by Dhawal Kulkarni on the 4th ball of the match. Rahul's wicket was followed by a 56-run stand between Chris Gayle and Mayank Agarwal which ended after Mayank's dismissal in the 9th over.

After his wicket, Gayle took the charge and started to increase the tempo. The southpaw, along with young Sarfaraz Khan, went all his guns blazing and brutally smashed the Rajasthan bowlers. The Jamaican cricketer's blitz ended after Rahul Tripathi took a blinder near the boundary ropes on the penultimate ball of the 16th over. However, Gayle had already done the damage till then as he had scored 79 runs in just 47 balls.

Once Gayle was dismissed, the mantle had fallen on young Sarfaraz's shoulders and the extremely talented lad didn't disappoint the spectators as he, alongside Nicholas Pooran, finished the game for his team with utter brilliance and helped them to post a challenging target of 185 runs in 20 overs.

Chasing such a steep target is never an easy task. The most important thing in such big chases is the kind of start a team gets and the Rajasthan Royals got exactly the sort of start they needed. A fiery start by the two openers in the form of Ajinkya Rahane and Jos Buttler resulted in the team being 0/64 by the end of the first powerplay.

The skipper Rahane was dismissed in the 9th over but Buttler continued the carnage and kept the required run rate under his control. However, Buttler's damage had to stop after the Englishman was given out on a controversial decision. Buttler's controversial dismissal resulted in collapse and the Pink Army couldn't recover and eventually lost the match by 14 runs.

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#1 A match on debut for the Curran brothers

Sam Curran and Tom Curran

Sam Curran, in today's match, made his IPL debut by playing for the KXIP. Tom Curran, the older brother of Sam had also made his IPL debut in the previous season for the Kolkata Knight Riders.

On one hand, Tom had conceded 39 runs in the 3 overs on his debut, whilst Sam Curran, on the other hand, conceded 52 runs in the 4 overs bowled by him today. Interestingly, both the brothers had an economy of 13 on their IPL debut while both ended their spell with two wickets against their name.

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#2 Chris Gayle becomes fastest to 4000 runs

Gayle reached the landmark in just 112 innings

Chris Gayle has been one of the stalwarts of the Indian Premier League. The veteran cricketer has won the Orange Cap twice and has been one of the ambassadors of the tournament. He had started his IPL campaign with the Kolkata Knight Riders, went to RCB where he earned huge success and is currently playing for the KXIP.

Gayle has earned lots of success in this short span at the KXIP. He was one of their top run-scorers during the last season. And the southpaw kicked off his IPL 2019 campaign, in the same way, this time around as well.

He was the highest run-scorer from Punjab's side and with this knock, he also surpassed the 4000-run mark in IPL and became the fastest player to do so. He did that in just 112 innings and left David Warner (114 innings) behind. He is the 9th player and 2nd overseas player to achieve this feat.

#3 IPL witnesses its first Mankad

Ashwin

mankading

Buttler

A very unusual incident occurred in today's match between the Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab which shocked the entire cricketing fraternity. During the second last ball of the 13th over of the second innings, Ravichandran Ashwin was bowling to Sanju Samson and Jos Buttler was on the non-striker's end.

Ashwin took his run-up, returned back a few steps, hit the bails with the ball and started appealing for run-out. For the first time in the history of IPL, there was an appeal for 'Mankading'. Buttler and Ashwin were then engaged in a heated argument but the cameras clearly showed that Buttler had crossed the line and the Englishman had to eventually walk out. Buttler, who was batting on 69, seemed quite angry while walking out.

If a batsman, at the non-striker’s end, leaves the crease before the ball is actually delivered, the bowler can attempt a runout. In today's case, what Ashwin did comes under the laws but one of the main cause behind Buttler's anger was the fact that he hadn't received any warning. This scenario from a different viewpoint can be seen as ethically incorrect but legally correct.

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