Punjab Kings on Friday became the third team to be knocked out of the IPL 2023 after losing to Rajasthan Royals in a home match in Dharamsala on Saturday. Batting first, they set a 188-run target for RR before the visiting team reached the target in 19.4 overs. The start to PBKS' innings was poor as their top-order batters misfired. Much was expected from the big-hitting Liam Livingstone but he failed to deliver. He fell on just nine while trying to go for a hoick against Navdeep Saini and got bowled. He could be seen smiling after getting bowled. Former India cricketers Yusuf Pathan and Harbhajan Singh were clearly not impressed with the act. Yusuf went to the extent of saying that had they been in the PBKS set up, they would not have picked for laughing after playing a poor shot.
Watch: PBKS Star Smiles After Getting Bowled vs RR
Talking about the game, Devdutt Padikkal and Yashasvi Jaiswal hit sublime fifties as Rajasthan Royals kept their slim play-off hopes alive with a four-wicket win over Punjab Kings in their final IPL league match on Friday. Sent into bat, PBKS were reeling at 50 for four but Sam Curran (49 not out) and Jitesh Sharma (44 off 28 balls) revived the innings while M Shahrukh Khan (41 not out off) provided the late surge to power the side to 187 for 5.
A target of 188 was never going to be easy and RR needed to complete the chase in 18.3 overs to momentarily get ahead of Royal Challengers Bangalore's net runrate but they couldn't.
But still RR got two points to stay afloat with Jaiswal (50 off 36) scripting the chase, adding 73 off 49 balls with Padikkal (51 off 30) and another 47 off 22 balls with Shimron Hetmyer (46) as RR romped home in 19.4 overs.
With the win, RR moved to fifth spot with 14 points, same as RCB (4th) and Mumbai Indians (6th), who both still have a match to play in the league stage.
The loss meant, PBKS are officially out of the IPL.
With PTI inputs