JAIPUR: In a face-off of little consequence, Jaipur and Kota both looked listless with the bat and played out a low-scoring game that saw the former register a 28 runs win in their last league match of the Rajasthan Premier League (RPL) at SMS Stadium here on Tuesday. Right-arm seamer Anas Malik (3-0-25-2) and left-arm spinner Rohit Khichar (4-0-23-3) ran through the top-order, ensuring Kota's chase of paltry 136 never got going.
Having decided to bat first, Jaipur's batting was equally poor. But between the top-order collapse and the lower-order collapse, captain Shubham Garhwal played a terrific knock of 38-ball 68 that was studded with seven 6s and three 4s. He became the first batter in the tournament to have hit the most number of sixes in an innings.
Both the teams had already made it to the playoffs a day ago, but the match result had a bearing on Kota's position in the top-four as they eventually finished third in the league stage. In the five games, Jaipur have stayed unbeaten and will play Qualifier 1 against Jodhpur on Wednesday. Kota will play the Eliminator against Udaipur on Thursday.
After a poor start, there were expectations from Deepak Hooda to resurrect the innings, but he could only score 8 off 8 balls. Experienced campaigner Hooda holed out at backward point on a yorker length delivery off Anas.
Wicketkeeper batter Azeem Akhtar was Kota's highest run-scorer, chipping in with an unflattering 20 off 19 balls.
Playing his first game of the tournament, left-arm seamer Rohit Suthar (4-0-20-3) was instrumental in Jaipur's top-order collapse while Pushpendra Singh Rathore (3.3-0.12-4) cleaned up the lower-order with a four-wicket haul. But their efforts were not reciprocated by Kota batters.
Captain Sourabh Chouhan admitted that Kota batters played irresponsibly and could have done better. "The target wasn't much, but we were not disciplined enough in our batting. Our shot selection could have been better," Sourabh said during the post-match presentation.
In the second match, which was a truncated contest reduced to 11-over-a-side, Udaipur beat Sikar by five wickets and entered the playoffs.
