Kings XI Punjab vs Rajasthan Royals, 3rd Match - Live cricket score, Commentary

This is Sidhant Maheshwari, saying goodbye on behalf of Krishna, Raju, Bharath and my co-commentators, Srivathsa, Pradeep and Ramakrishnan. Take care! RR 162/7 (20.0 Ovs) KXIP 136/8 (20.0 Ovs)
So, that's all we have for you from this game. Tomorrow, we have a doube-header coming your way, with CSK taking on SRH in the first game. In the second game, it is going to be a huge battle as RCB play their first game of the tournament against last year's champions, KKR. Don't forget to join us then.
Faulkner: 'It's great to be back here playing for Rajasthan. It's a great start but there's a long way to go. I just back myself in this format. The younger players stepped up really well tonight, especially Hooda, who showed his confidence with the bat. Mitch (Mitchell Johnson) and I get along very well. I got a little bit lucky today (on winning his battle with Johnson).'
James Faulkner is the Man of the Match for his knock of 46 and for taking 3/26 with the ball
Smith: 'They were very good. We didn't get off to the best of starts, but we got around in the end. Hooda was good in his first match and Faulkner was great too. He is a little man, but he did brilliantly behind the stumps, effecting two direct-hits (talking about Sanju Samson's athleticism behind the stumps). I like playing here, it is a nice place to play and we have great stadiums here. The crowd is amazing too. I am sure we will be fine, we will look at the combinations and decide accordingly for each game. It's nice to have started off with a win in the first game.'
Bailey: 'Pretty happy (on the team's performance). I thought 160 was about par. If we had taken a couple of opportunities, we should have restricted them before. That's the nature of this game, a couple of run-outs and we changed the batting order and in hindsight, it wasn't a great idea as well. We thought that David (Miller) and I will come later and finish it off, but it was an error in judgement. Smith was really good and Faulkner was brilliant in the end. Hopefully, we can learn from our mistakes. Disappointed with the loss, but happy with the bowling effort. Obviously, it was a great year for us last year but I am sick of talking about it. It's time for us to move on and concentrate on this year's competition.'
From Rajasthan's perspective, their fielding was on the money. Sanju Samson effected two direct hits and Southee took an excellent catch to send the dangerous Glenn Maxwell back to the pavilion. Southee also showed superb balance at the boundary line and Karun Nair backed him up to pluck the catch to dismiss Bailey. It has to go down as one of the finest catches taken in the history of the IPL. The Rajasthan camp would also be pleased with the way they recovered after their top-order batsmen struggled against the new ball. The credit certainly has to go to Deepak Hooda and Faulkner for landing some hefty blows at a crucial juncture of the match.
Rajasthan's bowlers put up an inspired show to overcome their fancied opponents. Tim Southee, Dhawal Kulkarni and James Faulkner were among the wickets and they never allowed Punjab to up the tempo. Chris Morris bowled well in the end overs. It was Southee, who swung the new ball to produce the edge off Virender Sehwag's bat and take his wicket in the first over. Murali Vijay looked in supreme touch before he was run out. To make it worse for them, David Miller was dismissed just when he looked set play a breezy innings. Axar Patel and George Bailey tried to steer Punjab home, but they had too much to do.
Rajasthan Royals have deserved this win. After a poor start where they lost quick wickets, this win will give them huge confidence going forward. KXIP have only themselves to blame as they gave away too many runs in the final overs when they were bowling and then they didn't bat to the best of their abilities either. The two run-outs also didn't help their cause.