Rajasthan Royals maintained their hundred percent win record at home against Kings XI Punjab after their 15-run win. With it, Royals move to the sixth spot from last on the IPL 2018 points table and stay alive in the tournament. KL Rahul once again carried his bat through as he scored unbeaten 95, but that wasn’t enough to take KXIP home. Chasing 159, KXIP were restricted to 143 for seven in allotted 20 overs. IPL 2018 Points Table

KXIP’s chase stared on a shaky note when Krishnappa Gowtham removed Chris Gayle and Ravi Ashwin in the third over of the innings. Punjab were further dented with the loss of Karun Nair’s wicket, who fell to Jofra Archer.

The visitors kept losing wickets with Akshdeep Nath, Manoj Tiwary, Axar Patel falling at regular intervals. While KXIP were losing wickets, Rahul was going strong from one end. He then added a 46-run stand for the seventh wicket Marcus Stoinis, but the required run-rate kept creeping up. Stoinis was eventually dismissed in the last over. You can watch the video highlights of RR vs KXIP here.

For Royals, Gowtham picked two wickets while Archer, Jaydev Unadkat, Ben Stokes and Ish Sodhi picked a wicket each.

Earlier, batting first Royals lost skipper Ajinkya Rahane early. However, Jos Buttler played a solid knock to help Royals post a decent total Buttler scored 82 off 58 balls and smashed nine fours and a six during his knock. Sanju Samson too made a significant contribution of 22 runs.

For Punjab, Andrew Tye was the pick of the bowlers as he scalped 4/34.

Royals will now face Chennai Super Kings at home on May 11 while KXIP takes on Kolkata Knight Riders at Indore in their home game on May 12.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 09, 2018 12:12 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).