Punjab Kings (PBKS) secured a narrow 4-run victory over Rajasthan Royals (RR) on 12 April in Match 4 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.
Orange Cap
Over 440 runs were scored on Monday night in the RR vs PBKS match, the most so far in IPL 2021. It is likely that this may never be beaten – not at least the Chinnaswamy leg of the tournament gets underway.
Asked to bat first, Punjab skipper KL Rahul led from the front with 91, striking at 182. However, coming at No. 4, Deepak Hooda took the limelight from Rahul with a fiery 28-ball 64. The duo helped PBKS to post 221/6.
In reply, despite the presence of Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes, the onus fell on new skipper Sanju Samson to lead the chase. He exceeded expectations, albeit after surviving two easy chances early in his innings.
Samson became the first batsman in the IPL history to score a century on captaincy debut and ended up scoring 119 (off 63 balls). However, Rajasthan fell just short of the target despite Samson’s classic and key cameos from Buttler, Shivam Dube, and Riyan Parag.
| Batsman | Team | R | SR | 50 |
| Sanju Samson | Rajasthan | 119 | 189 | 1 |
| KL Rahul | Punjab | 91 | 182 | 1 |
| Shikhar Dhawan | Delhi | 85 | 157 | 1 |
| Nitish Rana | Kolkata | 80 | 143 | 1 |
| Prithvi Shaw | Delhi | 72 | 189 | 1 |
| Deepak Hooda | Punjab | 64 | 229 | 1 |
| Manish Pandey | Hyderabad | 61 | 139 | 1 |
| Jonny Bairstow | Hyderabad | 55 | 138 | 1 |
| Suresh Raina | Chennai | 54 | 150 | 1 |
| Rahul Tripathi | Kolkata | 53 | 183 | 1 |
Purple Cap
Apart from two uncapped left-arm seamers, Chetan Sakariya and Arshdeep Singh, bowlers from both sides were hit all over the ground, and sometimes beyond it. The pair, however, picked up three wickets each and showed a lot of promise in their first game in IPL 2021.
Punjab’s Mohammad Shami (2-33) was the only other bowler to pick up more than one wicket in the match.
| Bowler | Team | W | Econ | 4WI |
| Harshal Patel | Bangalore | 5 | 6.75 | 1 |
| Chetan Sakariya | Rajasthan | 3 | 7.75 | 0 |
| Arshdeep Singh | Punjab | 3 | 8.75 | 0 |
| Avesh Khan | Delhi | 2 | 5.75 | 0 |
| Chris Woakes | Delhi | 2 | 6.00 | 0 |
| Rashid Khan | Hyderabad | 2 | 6.00 | 0 |
| Jasprit Bumrah | Mumbai | 2 | 6.50 | 0 |
| Marco Jansen | Mumbai | 2 | 7.00 | 0 |
| Mohammad Nabi | Hyderabad | 2 | 8.00 | 0 |
| Mohammed Shami | Punjab | 2 | 8.25 | 0 |
| Prasidh Krishna | Kolkata | 2 | 8.75 | 0 |
| Chris Morris | Rajasthan | 2 | 10.25 | 0 |
| Shardul Thakur | Chennai | 2 | 14.45 | 0 |
Points Table
All eight teams have now played exactly one match each in IPL 2021. Let us have a look how the points table looks like.
| Team | M | W | L | NR | Pts | NRR |
| Delhi Capitals | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.779 |
| Kolkata Knight Riders | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.500 |
| Punjab Kings | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.200 |
| Royal Challengers Bangalore | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.050 |
| Mumbai Indians | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -0.050 |
| Rajasthan Royals | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -0.200 |
| Sunrisers Hyderabad | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -0.500 |
| Chennai Super Kings | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -0.779 |