Rajasthan Royals maintained their perfect Indian Premier League start with a six-run win over Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad on Saturday night.
A knife-edge game saw Kagiso Rabada strike with two first innings wickets, before his unbeaten 23 off 16 balls took the match to the last ball in pursuit of 211.
Dhruv Jurel earlier hit 75 off 42, with Yashasvi Jaiswal adding 55 off 36 as the visitors piled up 210/6.
Sai Sudarshan led from the front in response for the Titans, going to a 34-ball 50 by blasting over wide long-on for six.
He lost opening partner Kumar Kushagra but took the total beyond 100 before he perished, slogging Ravi Bishnoi to Tushar Deshpande in the deep.
Jos Buttler struggled to find a friend as Glenn Phillips and Washington Sundar both came and went at the hands of Bishnoi.
Nandre Burger removed the ex-England captain, digging in a bouncer that rushed Buttler into a skied swish down to long leg, trudging off for 26 off 14.
Bishnoi had his fourth when he skidded one across the robust Rahul Tewatia, who edged behind to leave his side 155/6.
Shahrukh Khan then turned for an ill-advised second run, departing for 11 after breaking the golden rule: don’t take on the arm of Ravindra Jadeja.
It put the Royals in the box seat but Rabada and stand-in captain Rashid Khan made them sweat.
The pair combined to take it to the wire before the Afghan was caught on the boundary off the penultimate ball with seven still needed.
Royals opening pair Jaiswal and Vaibhav Suryavanshi had earlier torn into the Power Play, bringing up the 50 off just 25 balls.
They had advanced that to 70 when the 15-year-old wonderkid holed out to the safe hands of Glenn Phillips in the deep, as Rashid brought himself on to stem the flow.
Rabada delivered at the key moment, demolishing Jaiswal’s off stump before Prasidh Krishna had a tentative Riyan Parag caught by Kumar Kushagra.
And he struck again when he had fellow South African Donovan Ferreira caught on the boundary.
Siraj finally had Jurel caught behind in the final over, but not before the scoreboard had ticked past 200, which proved just enough.
GUJARAT TITANS: Kumar Kushagra, B Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler (wk), Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan (capt), Kagiso Rabada, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj, Ashok Sharma.
RAJASTHAN ROYALS: Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Riyan Parag (capt), Shimron Hetmyer, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Tushar Deshpande, Sandeep Sharma.