The Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Kings XI Punjab by 4 wickets to register their first win in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018. RCB won the toss and put Kings XI Punjab to bat.
AB de Villiers made a swift 57 runs to help Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Kings XI Punjab by four wickets in the match on Friday, 13 April.
KXIP openers KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal smashed six boundaries, taking the Kings to 32 runs after 3 overs. However, that's when they hit a snag, with the Kings' Umesh Yadav dropping three wickets in just six balls!
Mayank Agarwal was caught off a ball from Yadav. Aaron Finch got out next, from an LBW, and Yuvraj Singh's wicket fell, bowled by Yadav.
Chasing 156, Royal Challengers Bangalore opener Brendon McCullum got out for a duck in the second ball of the first over! Skipper Virat Kohli (21) also wasted the start and went back in the fifth over.
De Villiers and opener Quinton de Kock (45) then forged a crucial 54-run partnership for the third wicket before in-form de Kock was sent packing by Ravichandran Ashwin in the 12th over.
Mandeep Singh (22) then came in the middle and supported de Villiers by playing some beautifully crafted shots around the ground.
But just when Bangalore side was at the brink of the win, the South African player was dismissed by Andrew Tye in the 19th over. His 40-ball innings was laced with two boundaries and four sixes. Just after that, Mandeep also got run out in the same over.
But at that time, it was just a formality and lower-order batsmen Chris Woakes (1 not out) and Washington Sunder (9 not out) completed it with ease.
Put to bat first, Punjab started off on a poor note, losing opener Mayank Agarwal (15), new batsmen Aaron Finch (0) and Yuvraj Singh (4) the fourth over. With the scoreboard reading 32, Mayank and Finch were dismissed in consecutive balls, while Yuvraj was bowled on the last ball by Umesh Yadav.
Unperturbed by the sudden fall of wickets, opener Lokesh Rahul (47) played sensibly and also hammered the bowlers all around the park before getting out in the 12th over to spinner Sundar. In his 30-ball knock, he slammed two boundaries and four sixes.
Middle-order batsmen Karun Nair (29) and Marcus Stoinis (11) also failed to utilise their starts and got dismissed in the back to back overs to make scoreboard read 102/5.
With their top-five players sitting in dugout, Punjab's lower-order got exposed early. Ashwin (33), however, tried to pace up the innings but in the process the off-spinner also got out in the penultimate over.
(With inputs from IANS)
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