IPL 2019: RR vs KXIP - Ashwin's 'mankading' and other moments that turned the game

Kings XI Punjab had a poor record against Rajasthan Royals at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium. The franchise based in Punjab had never won against RR in Jaipur. Today they broke the jinx by registering a 14 run win over Ajinkya Rahane' men.

It was a yet another high scoring match in this season's IPL. Earlier, KXIP scored 4/184 in the first innings after being invited to bat first by RR captain Ajinkya Rahane. They were able to put this score on the board on the back of a brilliant knock by Chris Gayle. Sarfaraz Khan provided him with good support from the other end.

RR looked in a good position to chase down the score when Jos Buttler was at the crease. But then he was controversially run out by Ashwin. Steve Smith and Sanju Samson built a decent partnership together but once that partnership was broken, the chase was derailed. Eventually, KXIP won the match on the back of excellent death bowling.

Here are the defining moments of the game.

---

#1 Chris Gayle's brilliant innings

KXIP got off to a bad start as KL Rahul was dismissed by Dhawal Kulkarni in the first over of the innings. Chris Gayle started off the innings cautiously as the pressure seemed to be building on KXIP. When Gayle got into the groove there was no stopping him as the 'Universal Boss' cleared the boundary at his will.

At one stage, he looked good to take KXIP's score past 200. Even Ben Stokes looked hapless in front of the man who was middling every shot. The English all-rounder tried a short ball and Gayle tried to play a pull shot. He connected the shot well and the ball seemed to be crossing the boundary line yet again before Rahul Tripathi plucked it off.

The damage was already done though, as Gayle had put his team in a great position. Eventually, KXIP was able to post a very good score on the board.

Follow Sportskeeda for all the updates on IPL purple cap, points table, schedule, news, live scores, orange cap and fantasy tips.

#2 Ashwin 'mankading' Jos Buttler

Jos Buttler had started the innings brilliantly and he looked set to take the game away from KXIP. At one stage, it seemed that the English wicket-keeper batsman will chase down the score with a few overs to spare. KXIP captain, Ravichandran Ashwin who was bowling, noticed that Buttler was trying to gain an advantage by leaving the crease early.

He made full use of the rule which allows the bowler to take off the bails on the bowler's end to run out the batsmen backing too far. While this falls in line with the laws of the game, this move was against the unwritten protocol which says that bowler should warn the batsman.

Buttler seemed very livid with what had happened but Ashwin was well within his rights to take advantage of the situation. This also triggered a debate on social media about the spirit of the game.

Follow Sportskeeda for all the updates on IPL orange cap, points table, schedule, news, live scores, orange cap and fantasy tips.

#3 Twin blows by Sam Curran

Sam Curran got off to a very poor start to his IPL career. The English all-rounder was not able to stop RR batsmen from scoring the runs in his first three overs. When he came to bowl to in the 17th over of the innings RR was in very good position.

The hosts needed just 39 runs off the last four overs with eight wickets in hand. On the other hand, Curran had conceded 48 runs in the first three overs of his spell. He managed to redeem himself by dismissing both Steve Smith and Sanju Samson who looked set on the crease.

RR never quite recovered from this twin blow as they kept losing wickets. Eventually, a mix of great death bowling from KXIP and poor shot selection from RR batsmen did the trick for KXIP. In the end, Curran who looked like a villain had emerged as the hero for KXIP.

Follow Sportskeeda for all the updates on IPL live score, purple cap, points table, schedule, news, orange cap and fantasy tips.