Jaiswal, Parag, and cameos from Hetmyer and Jurel lead RR to 205

Yashasvi Jaiswal's first half-century of IPL 2025, and an unbeaten 25-ball 43 from Riyan Parag provided the sparks at the start and finish for Rajasthan Royals (RR) to become the first team to post a 200-plus IPL total in Mullanpur. With the rest of the top six also chipping in handily, RR suffered no major lulls through their innings despite Punjab Kings (PBKS) bowlers finding a little bit of help from a surface that appeared two-paced from time to time.

The PBKS seamers got their slower balls to grip quite nicely on this surface, but RR's batters kept finding the big hits in between. There were ten sixes in all, with Jaiswal hitting five of them and Parag three.

Whether conditions remain similar through the chase could determine the direction of this match. At the toss, Shreyas Iyer chose to bowl in PBKS' first home match of the season with the expectation of dew in the second innings.

Iyer may have hoped for early wickets to keep RR's total down, but that didn't quite materialise even though left-arm quicks Arshdeep Singh and Marco Jansen found early swing. Jaiswal was the beneficiary of a few plays and misses, but having got that early bit of luck, he was soon on his way with back-to-back sixes off Jansen in the fourth over.

With Sanju Samson timing the ball well too, RR had their first wicketless powerplay of the season, getting to 53 for no loss in the first six overs. They slowed down somewhat after that, scoring just 39 off the next five overs and losing Samson in the 11th over. But Jaiswal floored the accelerator thereafter, rushing from 46 off 39 balls to 67 off 44 before being bowled by a Lockie Ferguson knuckle ball in the 14th over.

Parag's innings followed a similar pattern. He struggled early on, particularly against Arshdeep's slower ball, and was on 12 off 14 at one point in the 16th over. Then he got to grips with the surface, and hit 31 off his last 11 balls. With Nitish Rana, Shimron Hetmyer and Dhruv Jurel contributing cameos at the other end, RR went past 200 in the final over of the innings.