Follow UsAt the IPL 2025 mega auction, Rajasthan Royals (RR) spent a total of 22.15 crore on their three premier overseas bowlers - Jofra Archer, Wanindu Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana.
Hasaranga did not play RR’s first encounter against Sunrisers Hyderabad, but serious questions were being asked of the management when RR conceded 286 in Hyderabad and then backed it up with another uninspiring showing against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), where they could only take 2 wickets in defence of 152.
Fast forward to game 18 of IPL 2025, RR have two wins from four, and their overseas recruits have had a significant hand in each of their two victories.
The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) clash, which RR won by 6 runs, was set up by Archer (who bowled a wicket maiden first up and then a wicked new ball spell), broken open by Hasaranga (who took four key wickets) and then finished off, in a way, by Theekshana, who bowled an outstanding six-run 18th over that sealed the game. The CSK game gave the Royals a potential template to follow.
Six days on, tonight in Mullanpur, it was the very same template that powered RR to victory, this time over a rampant Punjab Kings. It was a night where their Indian batters stepped up for the second game running, but another contest which was won by their premier overseas bowlers.
On the night, Archer remarkably went one better than he did against CSK. He castled the dangerous Priyansh Arya with a pearler on the very first ball of the chase but, crucially, delivered a devastating blow just a few minutes later, sending the nucleus of PBKS’ batting skipper Shreyas Iyer packing. Iyer had hit consecutive unbeaten fifties heading into the clash, was looking impregnable and had made Punjab’s batting unstoppable, but Archer put a dagger in the heart of PBKS by castling Iyer.
Archer set it up in the very first over of the chase, but the job was far from done, with Nehal Wadhera and Glenn Maxwell getting Punjab back into the game with a counterattacking 88-run stand. It was at this point that Theekshana and Hasaranga got the job done for the Royals, sealing the two points for Sanju Samson’s side.
Punjab needed 85 in the final six overs, and the 15th over began with consecutive boundaries. The chase looked like it was on, but against the run of play, Theekshana delivered a body blow by dismissing the set, Maxwell.
The Australian got out on the final ball of that over, but the Sri Lankan spinner brought about that particular wicket through a sequence of deliveries to Wadhera, which read 0 0 WD 1, forcing Maxwell to go for the big hit on the final ball.
Losing Maxwell was a hammer blow for Punjab, but they’d go on to all but lose the game just one ball later, with Hasaranga getting the other set batter, Wadhera, caught at deep mid-wicket.
And just like that, the match was done: set up by Archer and finished off by the Sri Lankan spin twins - for a second game running. A lot still has to go right for RR if they are to make it to the playoffs, but you do get the feeling that they have a solid bowling template sorted, courtesy of their overseas stars.