IPL PHOTOS: Kings XI Punjab vs Rajasthan Royals

Rajasthan Royals' off-spinner Ajit Chandila struck in the first over of the match, having Mandeep Singh caught and bowled for a duck.

- Scorecard

Captain Rahul Dravid won the toss and elected to bowl against Kings XI Punjab, who had Adam Gilchrist coming back to captain the team.

Rajasthan cruised to an easy eight-wicket victory, with an over to spare, to inch closer to the play-offs.

Gilchrist batted positively from the start to hit a breezy 42 from 32 balls. He started off with a cover-drive off S Sreesanth.

A flurry off boundaries followed from Gilchrist's bat as he struck two meaty blows off Sreesanth's next over.

When left-arm seamer James Faulkner came in to bowl, he steered successive deliveries to the boundary as the home team recovered after the loss of an early wicket.

Shaun Marsh, inspired by Gilchrist's counter-attack, lofted Chandila for a six and followed that with a boundary to get 14 runs from the seventh over.

The 100 came up in the 13th over while Marsh duly reached his 50 off 44 balls as he played Faulkner towards fine leg.

The Australian left-hander ensured Punjab maintained a healthy run rate in the middle as he smashed 77 from 64 balls, hitting six fours and two sixes.

David Hussey (1) was castled by Shane Watson as Punjab slowed down in the second half of their innings.

David Miller, who scored a 38-ball 101 in the previous match against Royal Challengers Bangalore, failed to make an impact, scoring just eight, while Manpreet Gony perished for three.

Kevon Cooper dented Punjab's hopes of a big score as he kept chipping away at the wickets to finish with three for 23 in four overs.

The last seven overs of the innings produced only 45 runs as Kings XI lost five wickets and finished with 145 for six in their 20 overs.

Rajasthan's chase started disastrously, as they lost skipper Rahul Dravid early; he was cleaned up by left-arm spinner Bipul Sharma in the second over of the innings for four.

Following the early dismissal, Ajinkya Rahane and Shane Watson put on 65 runs from 50 balls for the second wicket to set the platform for Rajasthan's chase.

Rahane hit 50 from 43 balls, hitting three fours and two sixes, to make it a hat-trick of half-centuries in IPL 6.

Shane Watson hit a breezy 31 from 25 balls before he was bowled by leg-spinner Piyush Chawla as the visitors slipped to 71 for two in the 10th over.

Young Sanju Samson continued his good run in the tournament, hitting a quickfire 47 from 33 balls, inclusive of five fours and a six, to hand Rajasthan to a convincing eight-wicket victory with an over to spare.

Samson and Rahane put on an unbroken stand of 76 runs from 64 deliveries.

Rajasthan inched closer to the play-offs with 18 points from 13 games.