Rajasthan Royals defeated Kings XI Punjab by 7 wickets at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi and registered their sixth win of the tournament while Kings XI Punjab suffered their seventh loss.
Earlier Rajasthan Royals won the toss and opted to field first. Jofra Archer gave a good start by dismissing Mandeep Singh for a first-ball duck. KL Rahul and Chris Gayle rebuilt the innings and kept on scoring runs without any problem and they added 120 runs for the second wicket. Rahul got out for 46 runs while Gayle brought up his fifty. In the end, Gayle played some big shots along with Nicholas Pooran. Gayle couldn't score a hundred but his 99-run knock helped Punjab to post a total of 185/4 on the board.
In reply, Ben Stokes gave a flying start to Rajasthan Royals and completed his 50 inside power play in 24 balls. He couldn't convert it into a big one and got out for 50 runs off 26 balls. Sanju Samson and Robin Uthppa took the score to over 100 runs and set the match in their team's favor. Uthappa and Samson got out towards the back end of the innings for 30 and 48 runs respectively and in the end, Smith's 31* and Buttler's 22* took their team home in the 18th over.
All the major stats and facts from the 50th match between Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals in Abu Dhabi :
12 - This is Rajasthan Royals' 12th win against Kings XI Punjab in IPL - the most wins for them against an opponent in IPL.
Most wins for Rajasthan Royals in IPL -
12 vs KXIP
11 vs MI
11 vs DC
10 vs RCB
9 vs CSK
99 - Chris Gayle is the first batsman to score two scores of 99 in the Indian Premier League. He scored 99* against RCB last year as well.
Batsmen to score 99 in IPL -
99 - Virat Kohli vs DC, 2013
99* - Suresh Raina vs SRH, 2013
99 - Prithvi Shaw vs KKR, 2019
99* - Chris Gayle vs RCB, 2019
99 - Ishan Kishan vs RCB, 2020
99 - Chris Gayle vs RR, 2020
200 - Nicholas Pooran has completed 200 sixes in T20 cricket. He has hit a total of 201 sixes in 151 T20 matches.
512 - Sanju Samson when on 36, completed 500 runs against Kings XI Punjab in IPL. He has scored 512 runs in 16 innings with 2 fifties against them.
641 - Runs KL Rahul has scored in this IPL so far - the first batsman to score 600 or more runs in this IPL season and his 641 runs are the second most runs for KXIP in a single IPL season.
Most runs for KXIP in an IPL season -
659 - KL Rahul, 2018
641 - KL Rahul, 2020
616 - Shaun Marsh, 2008
593 - KL Rahul, 2019
552 - Glenn Maxwell, 2014
1000 - Chris Gayle became the first-ever batsman to hit 1000 sixes in T20 cricket. He has hit total of 1001 sixes in 410 T20 matches.
Most sixes in T20 cricket -
1001 - Chris Gayle
690 - Kieron Pollard
485 - Brendon McCullum
467 - Shane Watson
447 - Andre Russell
417 - AB de Villiers
