Sanju Samson’s unbeaten 71 runs off 33 balls, which included 4 stylish 6s, had a significantly greater impact than his counterpart KL Rahul’s more measured 76 off 48 balls as the Rajasthan Royals comfortably defeated the Lucknow Super Giants by 7 wickets on Saturday. This victory was important for the Rajasthan Royals as they made a significant step towards the IPL playoffs.

Sanju Samson and Dhruv Jurel came together when the Rajasthan Royals lost momentum after a strong start, forging a partnership a solid partnership of 121 runs in just 62 balls for the unbeaten 4^th wicket, guiding their team to victory. Despite facing a challenging target of 197 with LSG playing with 7 bowlers, including 2 leg spinners Rajasthan Royals chased down the total of 199 runs losing 3 wickets and secured the victory with 1 over to spare.

Dhruv Jurela played his part as he hit a solid half century of 52 runs which included 5 fours and 2 sixes. The victory takes Rajasthan Royals to the top of the table with 16 points and 6 points ahead of 2^nd best Kolkata Knight Riders and step closer to become to become the 1^st team to reach the playoffs in the 17^th edition of IPL.

The playoff’s cutoff this year is likely to be 18 points, if one goes by the current scenario the first team to reach playoffs in the 17^th edition. The cut off for the playoffs is likely to be 18 points if one goes by the current mid-table muddle.

Rajasthan openers Jos Buttler (24) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (34) hit 60 runs from the target unscathed, but their side went through a slump in the following overs while also losing 3 wickets in quick succession. It started with Buttler walking across his stumps to miss an angled full toss from Thakur, who knocked out the leg stump to pick up his first wicket.

Jonny Bairstow’s century helped Punjab Kings create history at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Friday as they chased down the highest total ever by an IPL side in the history of the competition against the Kolkata Knight Riders. Set to chase a total of 262 runs, Punjab Kings reached 262/2 in 18.4 overs, due of an unbeaten century from Jonny Bairstow. Bairstow hit an unbeaten knock of 108* runs off 48 balls. He was well supported by Shashank Singh (68*) who hit an unbeaten half-century. Prabhsimran Singh (54) also hit a half-century for Punjab Kings and Rilee Rossouw fell to Sunil Narine scoring 26 runs off 16 balls.

Punjab Kings captain Sam Curran initially won the toss and decided to bowl first. Ramandeep Singh remained unbeaten for Kolkata Knight Riders as Rinku Singh (5) and Venkatesh Iyer (39) lost their wickets in the final over to Harshal Patel. Earlier, Phil Salt hit a half-century along with his opening partner Sunil Narine also doing the same.

Narine hit 71 runs off 32 deliveries and lost his wicket to Rahul Chahar. Meanwhile, Salt departed after hitting 75 runs off 37 deliveries and ultimately lost his wicket to Sam Curran. Arshdeep Singh dismissed Shreyas Iyer (28) and Andre Russell (24) as Kolkata Knight Riders posted 261/6 in 20 overs. But the night belonged to Punjab Kings, who dominated the game in the 2nd innings and eventually sealed an 8-wicket victory.

A total of 523 runs were scored during the match and an all time IPL record of 42 sixes were also hit by the both teams. Both the record chases now have come against the Kolkata Knight Riders in a space of 10 days and at the same venue of Eden Gardens. It was on April 16, Kolkata Knight Riders had failed to defend 223/6 with Jos Buttler hitting a 55-ball ton to pull off the record breaking run chase.

Ahead of their upcoming IPL matches, Sunrisers Hyderabad team received a delightful surprise in the form of a meeting with Tollywood superstar Mahesh Babu. The actor had a special photoshoot with the SRH players in Hyderabad, pictures of which are now going viral across social media platforms. Mahesh Babu after rubbing shoulders with SRH captain Pat Cummins also shared a pose with other key players.

Mahesh Babu’s latest photos have got the attention of Mahesh Babu and Sun Risers Hyderabad fans. Mahesh Babu took to his Instagram handle and shared a couple of pictures from the photoshoot. In the 1st photo Mahesh Babu is seen posing with Pat Cummins, the 2nd picture is a group picture with all the players including Nitish Reddy, Mayank Agarwal, Rahul Tripathi and Abhishek Sharma.

Pat Cummins commented on the post and wrote that it was great to meet him (Mahesh Babu) and he needed to get him out on a game soon. Mahesh Babu’s wife Namrata Shirodkar also expressed her excitement on seeing the viral post of her husband with the SRH captain. One SRH fan said this is one collaboration which he did not expect. One Mahesh Babu fan was stunned on seeing the viral post.

Mahesh Babu expressed his excitement on having the opportunity to meet SunRisers Hyderabad captain Pat Cummins, and posted that it is an absolute honour to meet him @patcummins30!  He said he is a big fan. Mahesh Babu wished him and the SRH team all the best for the future.

Later the pictures were also shared by the official Instagram handle of Sunrisers Hyderabad. The post showed the Tollywood superstar posing individually with all the players. The post was captioned SunRisers, Superstar of Telugu cinema, Mahesh Babu. Pat Cummins also shared the picture on his Instagram handle calling Mahesh Babu the Prince of Tollywood.