KXIP skipper KL Rahul got his first win of the IPL as a captain against his former side RCB in their second match of the IPL 2020 campaign. Rahul ruled the match with his century, also breaking several records. Kings XI Punjab had a massive win of 97 runs against Royal Challengers Bangalore. KXIP batted first after RCB chose bowling on winning the toss at the Dubai International stadium. KL Rahul went and scored a massive knock of 132 runs off 69 balls including 14 fours and 7 sixes.
The RCB team had a quick breakdown against the Punjab bowlers, going all out for 109 runs in the 17th over. KL Rahul broke a couple of records with his stupendous batting including the highest score by a captain in IPL, going past David Warner’s 126 for SRH in 2017. He also hit the highest score by an Indian at the IPL, going past Rishabh Pant’s 128.
Image Credit: BCCI/IPL
“It’s as complete team performance as it can get, so yeah, happy.”: KL Rahul
With his first victory in the IPL as a skipper, Rahul is impressed with the team’s performance. He told them they had new plans for this match and their priority was taking wickets and scoring big. He called the team performance, as complete as it could be.
“It’s as complete a team performance as it can get, so yeah, happy. [The bowling] we had a few different plans going into this game and we knew we had to get wickets up front, that also meant we needed to get a big score. As complete a performance as it can get.” KL Rahul said in a post match interview.
Image credits: BCCI/IPL
KL Rahul says he has not been so confident of his batting lately
KL Rahul came as an opener for KXIP and went on to play the whole winning scoring 132 and helping Punjab set a massive target of 206 runs on the board. RCB skipper Virat Kohli dropped Rahul’s catch twice and gave him a lifeline which cost RCB enough. Rahul stated that he has actually not been very confident of his batting lately, coming out of a long gap. However, he said he knew facing a few balls would restore his control over his game.
“I’ve actually been not so confident. Had a chat with Maxi yesterday and said I wasn’t feeling completely in control of my batting. Was a little nervous but I knew if I faced a few balls, it would settled down,” he said.
KL Rahul (Image Credit: BCCI/IPL)
The pace attack of KXIP led by Mohammed Shami and Sheldon Cottrell gave them a good start dismissing a couple of wickets quickly. Virat Kohli also was sent to the pavilion for just 1 run by Cottrell. Ravi Bishnoi and Murugan Ashwin were very impressed with the ball and got 3 wickets each. Shami and Maxwell both had one wicket to their name.
KXIP have now played two matches in IPL 2020 and won and lost one each. They are set to play Rajasthan Royals in their next match Sunday at the Sharjah International Stadium.
