Rajasthan Royals fail to seal playoffs berth

MOHALI: A double strike by Kings XI Punjab all-rounder Rishi Dhawan derailed Rajasthan Royals' chase of 180 runs at the PCA stadium in a crucial IPL encounter between the two teams.
Dhawan got back-to-back wickets in the ninth over of the Rajasthan chase, pegging back the stumps of a well-set Ajinkya Rahane with an indipper and then rattling the furniture of Royals skipper Shane Watson with the very next delivery.
RR opener Karun Nair also perished in pursuit of quick runs, gifting his wicket away to L Balaji, while Stuart Binny holed out in the deep off leggie Karanveer Singh's bowling.
The quick wickets put paid to Rajasthan's hopes of clinching a playoff berth on Friday itself -and shutting Mumbai Indians out -as Punjab won by 16 runs.
Only Sanju Samson, with 30 off 29 balls, and Hodge with 31 off 18 not out looked like putting up a fight for Rajasthan, who needed a win to seal a play-off berth.
Left-arm orthodox spinner Akshar Patel was again impressive for Punjab, taking 3/24 off his four overs, as Rajasthan managed 163/8. Rajasthan, however, still have a chance of making it to the play-offs should they beat Mumbai on Sunday.
Earlier, Punjab rested Glenn Maxwell but skipper George Bailey and David 'Killer' Miller structured together a perfect finish as Kings XI Punjab posted a challenging total of 179/4.
Bailey (26 off 18b; 1x4, 1x6) and Miller (29 off 20b, 2x6) took a special liking to James Faulkner and smashed 23 runs of his final over. The late acceleration by the Oz-Proteas pair meant KXIP took 46 runs off the final three overs.