That is that for today. Make sure you read Alagappan Muthu's report. Hope you tune in tomorrow too. Until then, this is Deivarayan Muthu and Chandan Duorah slithering into the darkness.

Shivam: "Two run outs by Samson were the key, I think. They created the pressure which led to toppling. If he had scored a bit more, he could have nailed MOM as well."

James Faulkner, Man of the Match: I just back my T20 cricket to be honest. It was nice to see Hooda show a lot of confidence in his first game. Mitch and me get along very well [responding to his tussle with his Aussie team-mate]. Play on.

Steven Smith, Rajasthan Royals captain: The boys were very good. Hooda in his first game played brilliantly. Faulker also played well. He [Sanju] is a good little player and we can expect more from him in the future. It was nice to get over the top of them [Kings XI Punjab]. I am sure he [Watson] will be fine. We will get our combination right and it is nice to get a win under our belt early on."

The players shake hands and exchange pleasantries. Good to see Bailey call a spade a spade. He signs off with a smile, the same way a kid does while navigating his dinky car-toy round the dining table. Sanju effected a couple of sharp run outs to derail Kings XI Punjab's chase. They never recovered from that and Axar's promotion backfired badly. Rajasthan Royals continued to chip away at the wickets, the topping on the victory pizza being the stunning relay catch near the boundary from Southee and Karun. Faulkner stood out with another impactful all-round display. In other news, Lancashire have confirmed the signing of James Faulkner as cover for Peter Siddle.

Southee: It was a great win to start the IPL. We would have been happy with 140-150. We got more than what we wanted. We needed early wickets and go that through run outs and created pressure. There is some movement for the seamers, not much turn there.

Bailey, Kings XI Punjab captain: Pretty happy with the way we went with the ball. I thought 160 was about par on this track and quite chaseable. We could have taken a few opportunities, but I was happy at the half-way mark. A couple of run outs hurt. We changed the batting order a bit and in hindsight that was not a good idea. Steven Smith batted beautifully and James Faulkner batted well as well. To be honest, I am getting sick of talking about last year. It is time to move to this year (grins).