Hetmyer the hero as the Royals take on a low-scoring thriller.

Rajasthan Royals 152 for 7 (Jaiswal 39, Hetmyer 27*, Rabada 2-18) Punjab Kings 147 for 8 (Ashutosh 31, Jitesh 29, Maharaj 2-23) from three wickets

Shimron Hetmyer came into the field with Rajasthan Royals needing 20 off 35 runs. Perhaps it shouldn’t have come so close, given Punjab Kings’ 147 for 8 at least ten runs seemed too light on a pitch that had some bounce but no famous magic. It seemed from the Royals’ own solid – but not massive – opening stand of 56 runs, that they weren’t sweating it out.

But then Kagiso Rabada bowled his four overs for 18 and suddenly the back end of the match became tight. Rabada also took two big wickets – of Yashvi Jaiswal and Sanju Samson – and thus was doing as well as any Kings player to produce a match-winning hand.

The last word, though, went to Hetmyer, who, despite an excellent over from Sam Curran and a good effort from Arsdeep Singh, won with a six off the last ball. Hetmyer hit two sixes in his lead.

Last over

Curran dismissed Rowman Powell and Keshav Maharaj for ten runs in the 19th over, and Royals needed another ten runs in the 20th over. Hetmyer was on strike, so it always seemed, but then Arsdeep delivered two brilliant yorkers first, which the batsman couldn’t make, and the equation was four to ten.

The key shot in the last over was Hetmyer’s desperate wallop down the ground off the third ball. Arsdeep didn’t cut his length much, but it wasn’t quite in the block hole. Hetmyer swung hard and managed to hit the ball into the boundary cushion – not over it – behind the bowler.

It only had centimeters. If Arsdeep had applied a fractional filler, Hetmire would not have been hit by it. Had Hetmyer not hit it with a little less Newtonian force behind it, the shot would have brought just four, and six of the final three would have been needed.

Hetmayer drives the next ball towards long-on and gets two, but the worst delivery of Arsdeep’s over was the fifth, and almost anyone could have hit it for a boundary. It came juicy, knee high and on the stump. Hetmyer catches a thriller and flicks it over deep fine leg.

Rabada’s charge

In defense of a modest target, Rabada was fierce. He bowled two tight powerplay overs, yielding just 12 runs, and then bowled aggressively in the middle overs, as the Kings looked for wickets. He got Jaiswal a short one wide of the batsman’s leg edge, then claimed the valuable wicket of Royals skipper Samson when he followed one back to hit the batsman on the back leg. Rabada hit only two fours which was also his tally of wickets.

Kings unbeaten innings

Until the last two overs, in which impact sub Ashutosh Sharma made the most of the let-off and scored 20 off the last nine balls, the Kings never looked able to kick into high gear. Whenever there was any semblance of a partnership, wickets fell. Often this happened as the batsmen fell for short balls for cross-bat shots that were big on them. His figures were 38 for 1 after the powerplay, 53 for 4 after ten overs and 86 for 5 after 15.

From that point on, Ashutosh, Rabada and, to a lesser extent, Karan did well to make such a tough game out of him.

Andrew Fidel Fernando is a senior writer for ESPNcricinfo. @afidelf

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