By Vadiraj Kanakagiri

A star is born: Karthik Tyagi was entrusted to defend four runs in the final over. It was a kind of 'Jogindar Sharma 07' kind of move from Samson, as the more experienced Chetan Sakariya still had one over up his sleeve. And boy did he deliver.

Punjab kings have choked once again. At least five instances come to memory of when Punjab had the game in their hands and tentatively lost it in the end. With striking similarities of fumbling at the end, Punjab might as well turn out to be the South Africa of the IPL.

Opting to chase, Rahul made a big call about the Playing XI by excluding Birthday boy, Chris Gayle. Rajasthan started with a bang with both Evin Lewis and Yashaswi Jaiswal thrashed Punjab seamers all over the park. Lewis brought his CPL form into the IPL by smacking 36 of 21 before he was sent back thanks to a low diving catch by Agarwal. Captain Sanju looked in a hurry right from ball one but looked fidgety. He went out chasing a wide delivery from Porel, edging it straight to his counterpart. 'The Beast', Liam Livingston came in at 4 and lived up to his expectation, albeit for a short while, by smoking a gigantic six and a couple of thrashing boundaries.

After Livingstone's departure came the match-changing innings from the young gun Mahipal Lomror. For a guy slightly built, the kind of power he was able to generate was enthralling to see. He took a special liking to the spinners by smoking 4 massive sixes and also smashing 25 runs off one of the overs from Deepak Hooda. 

At the other end though Jaiswal was holding things together, after starting aggressively himself, but fell just one run short of a well deserved fifty.

With the score on 136 for 3 after 14, it seemed as if getting to 200 would be a walk in the park. But Arshdeep Singh was having none of it. Along with Mohammed Shami, the death bowling duo exhibited a masterpiece of death bowling with both matching each other over after over. The accuracy and control was such, they gave away only a solitary boundary in the final four overs. Arshdeep Singh was the star with the ball as he achieved his maiden five wicket haul and Shami ended his four with three wickets to his name.

Chasing over 9 an over, Karnataka pair took some to get going. From the fourth over though, after getting a 19 run over of Sakariya, they were in a different zone. Planting all of the RR bowlers all over the ground they reached a 100 run stand and got to 120 in the 12th over with almost sealing the game in their favour. Rahul was living a charmed life as he was dropped thrice, got out by guiding one straight to short third off Sakariya on 49. In the very next over, Mayank suddenly started feeling the heat somehow, trying to break the shackles he holed out at sweeper cover, which meant two new batters were at the crease. Pooran and Markram continued the momentum and got the target down to 8 from two overs. Then came the twist. 'The Fizz' Mustafizur Rahman bowled a tidy 19th and gave only four runs, to which, the Punjab didn't seem to bother too much as they were just one hit away.

Karthik Tyagi defended four runs in the final over. Yes. You heard it right. It's four. In a game where both the teams scored over 180. Over 9 every frickin over. But when it mattered the most, Tyagi nailed wide Yorkers outside off stump giving the batsman no chance to get under it and lift it over the field. After giving away only one run off the first two deliveries, he got rid of Pooran on the third delivery. He got away with a wide Yorker outside the tram line on the offside on the fourth and scalped Deepak Hooda on the fifth with a wide yorker.

With 3 runs needed off the final delivery, Fabian Allen, with CPL success behind him, strode down to the middle. Tyagi was having none of it. He looked so focused and determined, the only thing he was seeing at that moment was the blockhole outside off, just under the bat. And he did just that on the final ball. Allen tried to smash it to the boundary, but was nowhere near a match for the excellence of the young man and was beaten both for pace and for skill. .

Brief scores : Rajasthan Royals 185 all out(Jaiswal 49, Lomror 43; Arshdeep 5-32, Shami 3-21) beat Punjab Kings 183/4 ( Agarwal 67, KL Rahul 49; Kartik Tyagi 2-29) by 2 runs. Meanwhile KL Rahul reached 3000 IPL runs while Mayank Agarwal completed his 2000 runs