Bengaluru: This game ebbed and flowed outrageously, but in the end Royal Challengers come out triumphant, as they beat Kings XI Punjab by 17 runs in the 42nd match of the VIVO Indian Premier League in Bengaluru, on Wednesday. With two points in their kitty, they have still kept their hoped alive. Earlier, AB de Villiers’ scintillating half century and a 121-run stand with Marcus Stoinis propelled Royal Challengers Bangalore to 202 for four.
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Sent into bat, De Villiers scored a brilliant unbeaten 82 off 44 balls with three fours and seven sixes, while Stoinis hammered 46 off 34 balls with two fours and three sixes. In the last two overs, both Stonis and De Villiers hamered 45 runs off Mohammad Shami and Hardus Viljoen. After reaching his 50 off 35 balls, De Villiers, smashed Shami for three sixes, plundering 18 runs in the penultimate over.
In the last over, both Stoinis and De Villiers hammered 27 runs off Viljoen, which helped the hosts to race past 200 runs mark. Put into bat, opener Parthiv (43 off 24 balls) and Virat Kohli gave a rollicking start getting 35 runs on board in 18 balls but RCB captain was dismissed by Shami after he was caught by Mandeep Singh at extra cover. Parthiv then got into the act for RCB, hitting out of the park Shami for three boundaries and a six in sixth over, who conceded 18 runs in his third over.
Brief Scores: RCB 202/4 (AB de Villiers 82 off 44 balls, R Ashwin 1-15). KXIP 185-7 (Nicholas Pooran 46 off 28 balls, Umesh Yadav 3-33, Navdeep Saini 2-33).
