Royal Challengers Bangalore sneaked in another victory to make it four out of five matches beating Kings XI Punjab by 17 runs to make the ongoing Indian Premier League more interesting at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Chasing 203 runs, Chris Gayle and KL Rahul got Kings XI Punjab off to a flier on a small Chinnaswamy Ground. They took 14 runs off Tim Southee’s first over to set the tone for the chase. While Chris Gayle dominated the first over, it was KL Rahul’s turn to showcase his class. The duo kept on the rampage to score 36 runs in the first three overs. Gayle continued the momentum to hit Umesh Yadav for a six in the first delivery of the fourth over before holing out to AB de Villiers in the long on.
Bangalore register their third win
Since then, KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal – both cricketers from Karnataka combined well to lead the charge. But two wickets from two overs by the Royal Challengers Bangalore bowler put them ahead of the game. While Stoinis got the better of Agarwal, Moeen Ali dismissed Rahul in his first delivery to give the hosts an edge. While many thought Bangalore have sneaked in another win, Windies World-Cupper Nicholas Pooran had some other plans. He smacked everything at his disposal while David Miller played second fiddle. With 30 needed off the last two, Navdeep Saini bowled a terrific over to give three runs and dismiss two set batsmen to hand Bangalore another win.
Meanwhile, AB de Villiers-fuelled mayhem, in the end, gave Royal Challengers Bangalore far more than what they’d have expected to score after their collapse in the middle overs. Bangalore scored 64 runs in the last 18 balls as Hardus Viljoen and Shami just couldn’t get their lengths right to post 202 runs on the board. Previously, Moeen Ali got the home side off to a flier adding 70 runs in the powerplays despite losing Virat Kohli early. But once Parthiv got out, Moeen Ali and Akshdeep Nath also followed to reel at 84 for four.
Since then, AB de Villiers partnered Marcus Stoinis to bail the innings before launching the carnage. Viljoen went for 16 and 27 runs in his last two overs to finish with figures of 1 for 51. On the other hand, Shami went for 53 runs in his full quota. Royal Challengers Bangalore picked up right at the end – at their absolute peak, RCB scored 134 in 9 overs and that might just be the difference.
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