Twitter Reactions: Ravi Ashwin's all-round effort helps KXIP overpower Royals in Mohali

The Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) have managed to register their fifth win of the season as they defeated the Rajasthan Royals (RR) by 12 runs. Ravi Ashwin‘s 17-run blitz made the difference in the end and though Stuart Binny played a breezy knock of 33 off 11 balls, the Royals had conceded 12 too many. The Royals have now lost six matches and need to win all the remaining matches to have any chance of qualifying for the playoffs.

The chase of 183 runs began for the Royals with the home team having the momentum thanks to their skipper Ravi Ashwin. The Pink Army needed Jos Buttler to fire desperately. He started well too. But Buttler was foxed by the debutant Arshdeep Singh in the fifth over. RR also surprised everyone by sending Rahul Tripathi to open the innings and he didn’t disappoint.

After Buttler’s dismissal, Sanju Samson batted well and along with Tripathi kept the team in the hunt. But it was tough to hit big sixes on a big ground in Mohali. Both of them were sent back as they were looking to get some quick runs. Ashwin got the big fishes while Ajinkya Rahane batted at four today and his role was rather questionable on the day.

He failed to force the pace and despite Stuart Binny’s blitz of 33 runs off 11 deliveries in the end, the Royals fell short of the target by 12 runs in the end.

Punjab get to 182 with the bat

Earlier, the KXIP got to a decent start with Chris Gayle smacking a couple of sixes. But their opening duo of KL Rahul and Gayle is guilty of playing too many dot balls in the powerplay. Opposition teams have figured it out and they are ready to give them a couple of maximums while restricting for a chunk of deliveries upfront. Despite the Universe Boss scoring 30 runs in the powerplay, he took 22 balls for that and KXIP could only score 39 runs in the first six overs.

Mayank Agarwal then batted beautifully and raced through to 26 but once again he couldn’t carry on and was snaffled by Ish Sodhi. David Miller and Rahul upped the pace then and were set for a grand finish in the last three overs. But the Royals bowled superbly in the death overs to pick four wickets and the KXIP looked set to finish at 170.

However, there was a twist in the tale. Ravi Ashwin came out to bat to smack 17 off just four balls in the final over and propelled his team to 182 runs for the loss of six wickets. The KXIP bowled well and those runs from Ashwin turned out to be match-winning in the end as the home side won the match by 12 runs.

Here’s how Twitter reacted:

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