Sam Curran starred as Punjab Kings moved off the bottom of the Indian Premier League table with a five-wicket victory over second-place Rajasthan Royals.

The Kings successfully chased a target of 145 as Curran finished with an unbeaten 63, including two maximums in the final four balls, to get them over the finish line.

The Royals struggled to find their rhythm until Riyan Parag (48) and Ravichandran Ashwin (28) stepped up to drag them into contention, but the Kings stifled their recovery near the end of the first innings. West Indies captain Rovman Powell (four) was among those that failed to spark at the backend of the Royals innings.

Curran (2-24), Harshal Patel (2-28) and Rahul Chahar (2-26) all played a part in limiting RR to 144-9, though the Kings then looked like they might fall short in the chase.

Sam Curran starred for Punjab Kings.

Punjab captain Curran carried them forward after a slow start, and though Jitesh Sharma was caught for 22 to offer the Royals hope in the 16th over, impact player Ashutosh Sharma contributed an unbeaten 17 in support of Curran, whose big hitting got the job done with an over remaining.

Data Debrief: Patel comes up clutch

Having posted figures of 2-28 on Wednesday, Patel now has 63 wickets in the death overs (16th-20th) in the IPL, the outright fifth-most wickets in this phase in competition history after Dwayne Bravo (102), Lasith Malinga (90), Bhuvaneshwar Kumar (85) and Jasprit Bumrah (80).

His late dismissals of Parag and Donovan Ferreira kept the Royals' score down, then Curran's joint-highest IPL knock ensured the Kings registered a fourth consecutive away victory. 

Harshal Patel showed composure at the death as Royal Challengers Bangalore sealed a nerve-jangling seven-run win against Rajasthan Royals in the IPL.

The experienced seamer was handed the ball for the final over as Rajasthan needed 20 runs for victory, and despite conceding 10 runs from the first three deliveries, Harshal then applied the brakes, dismissing Ravichandran Ashwin on the way to completing figures of 3-32.

RCB lost Virat Kohli to a first-ball duck as the match began, pinned lbw by Trent Boult, but it got better for them. They totted up 189-9 to set a testing target, with their innings propped up by the twin pillars of Faf du Plessis (62) and Glenn Maxwell (77). Du Plessis and Maxwell collaborated for the highest third-wicket partnership for RCB in the IPL, putting on 127 runs.

Both thrashed the ball around with gusto, probably wondering why nobody else was following suit as Dinesh Karthik, who made 16, was the only other home player to reach double figures.

Mohammed Siraj then bowled Jos Buttler for a duck in the first over of Rajasthan's reply. A second-wicket stand of 98 between Yashasvi Jaiswal (47) and Devdutt Padikkal (52) looked to have tilted the match Rajasthan's way, but the end of that alliance heralded a slowing of the run rate.

Captain Sanju Samson fell for 22 and Rajasthan needed 61 from the final four overs, with their task made all the more difficult when Shimron Hetmyer was brilliantly run out by Suyash Prabhudessai.

Dhruv Jurel (34no) went on the attack and the Royals required 20 from the last set of six, which soon became 10 runs from three balls, but then Ashwin holed out to deep midwicket to give Harshal his third wicket, and a pair of singles from the next two balls left Rajasthan short.

Royals rolled over

This defeat at M Chinnaswamy Stadium means Rajasthan, who led the IPL at the start of the day, have followed a run of three wins with back-to-back defeats, having also lost last time out against Lucknow Super Giants. Home hero Harshal was introduced to this contest as an impact substitute for Du Plessis, having been unable to bat because of a finger injury, and he made his mark in grand style by removing Jaiswal and Samson before completing the job.

Maxwell and Du Plessis dominate

Maxwell's third fifty-plus score of this IPL season was the pivotal performance, with his 77 runs coming in just 44 balls. His previous two fifties came in losing causes, so this will have come as sweet relief. Du Plessis is enjoying a stunning campaign and showed his pedigree again, extending his lead in the list of the IPL's top run-scorers with his fifth half-century of the 2023 tournament, moving to 405 from seven innings.

Harshal Patel and Yuzvendra Chahal starred as India wrecked the South Africa top order in Visakhapatnam, sealing a massive 48-run victory to reduce their T20I series deficit to 2-1.

The hosts needed to win to keep their hopes of a series triumph alive after going down to Heinrich Klaasen's career-best 81 in Sunday's four-wicket defeat.

And superb bowling displays from Harshal (4-25) and Chahal (3-20) meant they did exactly that after Ruturaj Gaikwad (57) and Ishan Kishan (54) hit half-centuries for the hosts, who scored 179-5.

The tourists produced a disappointing performance with the bat as they toiled to 71-5 and ultimately fell well short of their much-improved hosts, eventually bowled out for 131 in the final over.

Having been put in to bat by South Africa, Gaikwad and Ishan wasted little time in establishing a strong platform for the hosts, the former becoming the first dismissal of the contest in the 10th over, by which point India had 97 on the board.

While Dwaine Pretorius (2-29) eventually claimed the wickets of both Ishan and skipper Rishabh Pant (6) to keep the Proteas in contention, their hopes of wrapping up the series early were quickly shattered when they took up the bat.

The dismissal of skipper Temba Bavuma for just 8 set the tone for a dismal South African display, with Reeza Hendricks (23), Rassie van der Dussen (1), Pretorius (20) and David Miller (3) all following in a miserable start.

With India in full control, Chahal and Harshal ran riot, the latter claiming his fourth wicket when dismissing Tabraiz Shamsi for a golden duck with the final ball of the contest as the dominant hosts kept the series alive.

Dominant duo run riot

Having struggled to make headway against South Africa in the first two contests of the series, the Indian attack was back to its best in this potentially decisive third clash. 

Harshal set the tone by sending Bavuma and Hendricks tumbling early before finishing with four, while Chahal stepped up to claim his own treble, ensuring there was to be no repeat of Klaasen's heroics by dismissing him for 29.

Home openers on form

Gaikwad and Ishan's gave India a superb platform to build from, with the former recovering from his poor start to the series – in which he had previously scored just 24 runs across two innings – as the pair each hit crucial half-centuries.