The 40th match of the Vivo IPL 2018 between Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab began with the former batting first. As the Royals began their innings, they were jolted with the quick departure of skipper Ajinkhya Rahane and Gowtham in quick succession, while Sanju Samson started off well to be dismissed scoring 22.
With almost no support from the middle and lower order, Jos Butler waged a lone war, and scored a blitzkrieg 82(58b,9x4,1x6), propelling Rajasthan Royals to a decent score of 158/8, as Tye claimed 4/34. Kings XI Punjab innings began disastrously with danger man Gayle and skipper Ashwin claimed by Gowtham.
While the Kings XI Punjab batsmen fell like a pack of cars on one end, with even the expected players like Karun Nair, Manoj Tiwary failing to deliver, KL Rahul alone stood fighting solo sans company, as he scored an unbeaten 95*(70b, 11x4,2x6), which was however not powerful enough to take Punjab to a win, as he never really had any support. With Gowtham claiming 2/12, Rajasthan Royals won the match comfortably by 15 runs, as Punjab scored 143/7.
