It was the just the kind of performance Rajasthan Royals needed to keep alive its hopes of making the play-offs and bring a smile on Rahul Dravid's tired face. The team did far too many things right this evening to offset its poor catching. Much before the final ball was bowled, Rajasthan was sure of ending its four-match losing streak by extending Kings XI Punjab's sequence of home defeats to four.

For Rajasthan, the thumping 43-run triumph was its fifth, second against Punjab, from 11 matches and placed it in the fifth spot. Kings XI, with an identical record, slipped to the sixth place. After Rajasthan came good to post 177, five out of the six bowlers were among the wickets. Speedster Shaun Tait made his first appearance in this edition of IPL memorable by taking two wickets, same as fellow-Aussie and ‘Man-of-the-match' Shane Watson, who had earlier produced an aggressive 17-ball 36.

Off-spinner Johan Botha, too, made his return a fruitful one by claiming two wickets. The Punjab batting never got going with the first six overs producing just 33 runs for the loss of Mandeep Singh and Nitin Saini. Ryan Harris, who took out the Rajasthan openers and finished with two more in the final over, returned his first ever four-wicket haul in this format.

But it came on a day when Rajasthan enjoyed a near-perfect day at work. Knowing that no team chasing at this venue had won in four matches this season, Dravid's men batted by choice and set a challenging target. The Rajasthan innings was built on four good knocks with Dravid once again coming good and top-scoring with 46 on a perfect batting strip. But it was Watson who provided the impetus to wipe out the disappointment of the second-over dismissal of in-form Ajinkya Rahane.

After Dravid smashed three boundaries in succession off Ryan Harris, and two fours in the next over from Praveen Kumar, Watson smashed a six and two boundaries off Parvinder Awana's first over. The fall of Watson in the eighth over, soon after he hoisted Piyush Chawla for a six, did not slow down the scoring. At the half-way stage, Royals had made 94, its best this season.

Ashok Menaria took over from Watson and smashed two sixes off Chawla in the 12th over but lost the company of Dravid who fell to a good catch by Parvinder Awana. Thereafter, it was the 23-ball, 43-run fifth-wicket stand between Brad Hodge and Botha took the tally past 175.

Scoreboard

Rajasthan Royals: R. Dravid c Awana b Harris 46 (39b, 8x4), A. Rahane c Saini b Harris 5 (6b, 1x4), S. Watson c Harris b Chawla 36 (17b, 4x4, 2x6), A. Menaria c Gurkeerat b Chawla 34 (27b, 1x4, 2x6), B. Hodge c Marsh b Harris 36 (23b, 2x4, 2x6), J. Botha (not out) 14 (8b, 2x4), S. Binny c Marsh b Harris 0 (1b); Extras (lb-2, nb-1, w-3): 6; Total (for six wkts. in 20 overs): 177.

Fall of wickets: 1-7 (Rahane), 2-76 (Watson), 3-117 (Dravid), 4-133 (Menaria), 5-176 (Hodge), 6-177 (Binny). Kings XI Punjab bowling: Praveen 4-0-32-0, Harris 4-0-34-4, Awana 4-0-34-0, Mahmood 4-0-37-0, Chawla 4-0-38-2. Kings XI Punjab: S. Marsh b Botha 34 (27b, 5x4, 1x6), Mandeep c Trivedi b Watson 7 (6b, 1x6), N. Saini c & b Tait 2 (9b), D. Hussey c Hodge b Trivedi 8 (6b, 2x4), A. Mahmood b Binny 24 (24b, 2x4, 1x6), Gurkeerat c & b Botha 23 (24b, 2x4), A. Nayar (not out) 9 (8b), P. Chawla b Watson 5 (4b, 1x4), R. Harris c Botha b Tait 3 (5b), Praveen (not out) 7 (8b, 1x4); Extras (lb-5, nb-1, w-6): 12; Total (for eight wkts. in 20 overs): 134. Fall of wickets: 1-8 (Mandeep), 2-29 (Saini), 3-55 (Hussey), 4-59 (Marsh), 5-95 (Mahmood), 6-112 (Gurkeerat), 7-120 (Chawla), 8-123 (Harris). Rajasthan Royals bowling: Ankeet 3-0-32-0, Watson 4-1-22-2, Tait 4-0-18-2, Botha 4-0-21-2, Trivedi 4-0-28-1, Binny 1-0-8-1.