Michael Lumb assault floors Punjab

Opener Michael Lumb pummelled 83 off 43 balls to deliver Rajasthan Royals their third straight victory, which lifted them to joint second spot, an unlikely position for a team that was written off after starting with three defeats in a row.

The Punjab score of 153 looked insufficient, but it was not as measly as Lumb made it seem. The match was essentially decided after the fourth over of the chase, in which Lumb lashed fast bowler Rusty Theron for 20 runs to blast Punjab to 55 for 0.

The template was set in the first over, when Ramesh Powar made a hash of a simple fielding chance to give away two extra runs, and Sreesanth followed that up with gift of a short ball that was pulled for four by Lumb.

Kumar Sangakkara shuffled his bowlers around but to no avail: Lumb picked off the spinners with a bunch of sweeps and reverse-sweeps, while showcasing his full range of strokes against the quicks. The 100 came up in the ninth over when Irfan was caned for four fours, and Lumb was also eyeing his century. He was dismissed in the next over, but as a contest the match was effectively over.