It is almost as if James Faulkner was built from the ground up with only one question in mind: What would a Finisher need? Power, he has that. Common sense, he has that by the truckload. Percentage cricket, he doesn’t play any other kind. And confidence, he’s won a World Cup. Today in Pune, he walked in after Kings XI Punjab shredded the Rajasthan Royals top order. But 75 for 5 was nurtured through the middle overs to 110 for 5 in the 15th and then Faulkner exploded. His 46 off 33 balls lifted Royals to 162, which proved 26 more than necessary.
Faulkner, with the ball this time, insured that result by the fifth over of the chase when he dismissed Glenn Maxwell for 7. Tim Southee was at the other side of that wicket, falling low to his left to convert a touch chance. He bettered that in the 19th over with a hokey-pokey catch, featuring spectacular assistance from Karun Nair, that will adorn highlight reels forever. And so the Kings XI batting line-up was overpowered by a mix of enterprising bowling and electric fielding.
Rajasthan Royals
AM Rahane c Patel b Anureet Singh 0
SV Samson lbw b Sandeep Sharma 5
SPD Smith c Karanveer Singh b Johnson 33
KK Nair b Patel 8
STR Binny c †Saha b Johnson 13
DJ Hooda b Anureet Singh 30
JP Faulkner c Miller b Anureet Singh 46
CH Morris not out 6
TG Southee not out 0
Extras (lb 9, w 12) 21
Total (7 wickets; 20 overs) 162
Did not batDS Kulkarni, PV Tambe
Fall of wickets 1-5 (Rahane, 1.3 ov), 2-14 (Samson, 2.5 ov), 3-35 (Nair, 5.6 ov), 4-74 (Smith, 10.1 ov), 5-75 (Binny, 10.4 ov), 6-126 (Hooda, 16.4 ov), 7-160 (Faulkner, 19.3 ov)
Bowling
Sandeep Sharma 4-1-19-1, Anureet Singh 4-0-23-3, AR Patel 4-0-34-1, Karanveer Singh 4-0-43-0, MG Johnson 4-0-34-2
Kings XI Punjab
V Sehwag c †Samson b Southee 0
M Vijay run out (†Samson) 37
WP Saha run out (†Samson) 7
GJ Maxwell c Southee b Faulkner 7
AR Patel b Southee 24
DA Miller c Faulkner b Kulkarni 23
GJ Bailey c Nair b Faulkner 24
MG Johnson c Southee b Faulkner 0
Anureet Singh not out 0
Karanveer Singh not out 5
Extras (lb 2, w 7) 9
Total (8 wickets; 20 overs) 136
Did not batSandeep Sharma
Fall of wickets 1-0 (Sehwag, 0.1 ov), 2-32 (Saha, 2.6 ov), 3-46 (Maxwell, 4.6 ov), 4-64 (Vijay, 8.4 ov), 5-92 (Miller, 13.1 ov), 6-122 (Patel, 17.3 ov), 7-129 (Johnson, 18.3 ov), 8-131 (Bailey, 18.6 ov)
Bowling
TG Southee 4-0-36-2, CH Morris 4-0-21-0, DS Kulkarni 3-0-21-1, JP Faulkner 4-0-26-3, PV Tambe 3-0-15-0, STR Binny 2-0-15-0
MATCH DETAILS
Toss – Kings XI Punjab, who chose to field
Points – Rajasthan Royals 2, Kings XI Punjab 0
Player of the match – JP Faulkner (Rajasthan Royals)
Umpires – SD Fry (Australia) and CB Gaffaney (New Zealand)
TV umpire – K Srinath
Match referee – GF Labrooy (Sri Lanka)
Reserve umpire – CK Nandan