Durban, May 5: South Africa skipper Graeme Smith staged a boundary blitz as Rajasthan Royals cruised to a 78-run triumph over Kings XI Punjab in their Indian Premier League match here on Tuesday.

Smith struck 12 boundaries at balmy Kingsmead as he shared a 135-run first-wicket partnership with Naman Ojha that set up the defending champions for a fourth win in eight outings.

The Protea amassed 77 off 44 balls before being caught at the boundary by Piyush Chawla and the 68-run innings of wicketkeeper Ojha included five sixes and five fours.

Royals made 211/4 in 20 overs and while Punjab recovered from a disastrous start to reach 133/8, the outcome was obvious long before the final ball was bowled. "Fantastic! I’m so happy with the guys. Run rate could play a major role in this competition so our total today was a great boost," said Royals skipper-cum-coach Shane Warne.

Rajasthan bettered the previous highest total this season by 22 runs and the Smith-Ojha stand was also a 2009 IPL record as the round-robin phase of the Twenty20 tournament reached the halfway mark.

No Punjab bowler suffered more than Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, who bowled two no balls in the penultimate over and conceded 23 runs, including a six from 33-run Ravindra Jadeja.

Punjab made the worst possible start in pursuit of a 10.60-run-an-over target in the Indian Ocean city with Sunny Sohal caught by Warne off the first ball of the innings. Karan Goel contributed just one run before he headed for the pavilion and when Australian Simon Katich departed in the fifth over, Punjab were 25/3 and staring humiliation in the face.

Skipper Yuvraj Singh established some middle-order stability with a 48-run spell at the crease that included three sixes and three fours, but only Irfan Pathan (19) offered support.

Amit Singh was the most successful Rajasthan bowler, taking 3/9 in four overs while inspirational Australian legend Warne snapped up the wickets of Pathan and Chawla.

— AFP