Rajasthan Royals won by 4 wickets over Punjab Kings at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala on May 19 in the ongoing IPL 2023. Rajasthan Royals won the toss and opted to bowl. Punjab Kings posted 187 runs, courtesy of Sam Curran, Jitesh Sharma and Shahrukh Khan’s quickfire knocks.

While chasing, although Jos Buttler got out for a duck, Yashasvi Jaiswal maintained his sublime form with a fifty. Devdutt Padikkal also scored 51 and later Shimron Hetmyer hit a quick 46 and sealed the deal for his side.

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Here is what the captains and the player of the match said after the game:

Devdutt Padikkal, Player of the Match said as quoted by Cricbuzz: Apart from the net sessions, my best hit. Coming into the season I was feeling good. But it didn’t pan out the way I thought. Every game as a cricketer you want to win it for your side. To be honest, it has been that kind of a season. I have been all over the batting order. I need to learn batting at every position. At the start of the season, I thought I might not make it.

Sanju Samson said as quoted by Cricbuzz: I think at the end of the game, when Hety (Hetmyer) was going strong we thought we will finish by 18.5. We have a quality team and it is a little shocking to see where we stand on the table. I have been talking about Jasiwal almost every game. He has shown maturity. It feels he has played 100 T20Is. Almost 90 percent of the times we feel Boult will take a wicket in the first over. We were under pressure in the last few games.

Shimron Hetmyer said as quoted by Cricbuzz: I was trying to see how fast we can get the game finished. I was actually trying to get the game finish in 18, but I guess I didn’t get enough of the strike to do that. Had a little dip in the middle, but that’s how cricket goes sometimes. (On the duel with Curran) It’s always good to have someone say something to me, it doesn’t really happen much. I really enjoyed it today, giving me a little bit more confidence and a little bit more energy to execute and do what I need to do. (What was said by Curran?) Not anything I can disclose here to be honest.

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Shikhar Dhawan said as quoted by Cricbuzz: We lost too many wickets in the powerplay and that put us on the backfoot, but Curran, Jitesh and Shahrukh got us back in the game, the bowling was good (in patches), but the fielding wasn’t great, the dropped catches cost us the game. I feel 200 should have been a good total on this pitch. We could have done better in all the areas I think. Sometimes the batting was clicking, and sometimes the bowling was clicking, we couldn’t put up those performances together. But it’s a young group, so we have learnt a lot of things this season. I knew I had to take the game deep, so I wanted my best bowlers to bowl early, so Rahul had to bowl the last over. In the last game I gave Harpreet the final over, it depends on the surface and the situation.