Punjab Kings beat Rajasthan Royals by 4 runs in a high scoring thriller at Wankhede stadium on Monday despite RR Skipper Sanju Samson's brilliant century.

Chasing a giant target of 222 runs, Sanju Samson smashed a fantastic 119 off 63 balls featuring 12 fours and 7 sixes but failed to seal the game for the Royals as none of their other batters could even manage to score 30 runs.

Royals were off to a disappointing start after losing the wicket of opener Ben Stokes to a brilliant catch and bowled by Mohammad Shami on 0. Riyan Parag (25 off 11) Jos Buttler (25 off 13) and Manan Vohra (12 off 8) all failed to convert their decent starts into big scores.

From the Kings, Arshdeep Singh (3/35) was entrusted with the responsibility of defending 13 runs in the last over. He conceded just 3 runs of his first 2 balls but got hit for a 6 by Samson on the fourth ball. However after a dot Samson got caught on the last ball on the boundary to fall short of 4 runs to hand the Kings a winning start to their season. Besides, Mohammad Shami and Riley Meredith took home the figure of  2/33 and 1/49 respectively.

Asked to bat first by RR, PBKS skipper KL Rahul was the star performer for the Kings with his 91 off 50 balls. Deepak Hooda too smashed 64 off 28 as the duo added 105 runs for the third wicket. Chris Gayle too scored 40 off 28 as the three of them guided Kings to a mammoth 221/6 in their 20 overs.

For RR, Chetan Sakariya had a dream debut with the figures of 3/31 that included crucial wickets of KL Rahul, M Agarwal (14 off 9) and J. Richardson (0 off 2). Chris Morris who enjoyed the highest bid in the history of IPL during the auctions this year ended his day with figures of 2/41.