Jaipur (Rajasthan) [India], May 18 : Punjab Kings (PBKS) batters achieved a unique feat during their Indian Premier League (IPL) match against Rajasthan Royals (RR) on Sunday, as their middle-order scored the most runs by any team in a single innings in the history of the competition.
PBKS achieved this feat as after collapsing to 34/3 following their decision to bat first, PBKS' middle-order batters delivered plenty of fireworks to take their team past the 200-run mark.
A 67-run partnership between skipper Shreyas Iyer (30 in 25 balls, with five fours) and Nehal Wadhera took the team past 100-run mark. Later on, a 58-run stand between Wadhera, who went on to make 70 in just 37 balls, with five fours and five sixes and Shashank Singh pushed them past the 150-run mark.
In the final five overs, Shashank (59* in 30 balls, with five fours and three sixes) and Azmatullah Omarzai (21* in nine balls, with three fours and a six) made a meal out of RR pace, taking the team to 219/5 in their 20 overs.
Tushar Deshpande (2/37) was the pick of the bowlers for RR.
With this, the 180 runs scored together, the middle-order outshone the total of 174 runs scored by the Mumbai Indians (MI) middle-order (Ishan Kishan 99, Hardik Pandya 15 and Kieron Pollard 60*) against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in IPL 2020 at Dubai.
Now, RR needs to score 220 runs to win the game and make a playoff finish a little tougher for PBKS.
Teams:
Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Sanju Samson(w/c), Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel, Wanindu Hasaranga, Kwena Maphaka, Tushar Deshpande, Akash Madhwal, Fazalhaq Farooqi
Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh(w), Shreyas Iyer(c), Shashank Singh, Nehal Wadhera, Mitchell Owen, Azmatullah Omarzai, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal.