Abu Dhabi
Kings XI Punjab complete their second win of the season, and they've both come against Royal Challengers Bangalore. This time it was last-ball win as Punjab beat the Bangalore out-fit by eight wickets.
After a good bowling performance against an experimental batting order from RCB, they got off to another good start with their openers Mayank and Rahul putting on 78 runs for the wicket.
Chirs Gayle came in for his first game of the season and found himself in quicksand for the early part of the innings. But he ended up hitting five sixes and those are the shots that turn batting innings.
"Not really nervous. I mean, come on. It's Universe Boss batting, how can I be nervous. It was a very sticky surface, very slow, but it was better batting second. Team asked me to do a job at three and it wasn't an issue. Openers been batting well throughout the tournament and we didn't want to disturb that. Like I said, I was given a job and took it. All I was saying, put some respect on the name (by pointing to his bat sticker). That's all," said Chris Gayle after the match.
Kings XI Punjab finally put up a disciplined effort with the bowl to restrict Royal Challengers Bangalore to 171 for six.
Skipper Virat Kohli top-scored with 48 off 39 balls in his 200th game for RCB but it was Chris Morris' 25 off 8 in the death overs that took the team to a competitive score.
The final over bowled by Mohammad Shami went for 24 runs and could well prove to be the difference on a pitch which is not the batting beauty it was at the start of the tournament.
Notwithstanding Shami's wayward 20th over, it was a much improved bowling effort from a team that has been leaking runs in the death overs game after game.
KXIP conceded only 25 runs from over 16-19 before Morris and Isuru Udana hammered Shami for three sixes.
After Kohli chose to bat, KXIP experimented by opening the bowling with Glenn Maxwell (0/28 in 4 overs). He was slog swept by his Australian teammate and close friend Aaron Finch on the final ball.
Other opener Devdutt Padikkal (18) also went for his shots with his best hit of the night being the whip off Shami that went for a six over deep square leg.
However, both Padikkal and Finch could not build on their starts. Padikkal was foxed by a slower one from left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh to be caught at cover, while Finch missed a fast leg-break from M Ashwin, leaving RCB at 62 for two in the seventh over.
With Kohli looking good at the other end, AB de Villiers was expected to come in at his usual number four spot but with two leg-spinners in operation, left-handed batsman Washington Sundar was sent ahead of the South African.
The move did not work as he struggled to 13 off 14 balls.
KXIP, whose bowling has been the weakest link, did rather well from 11-14 overs conceding just 20 runs to put pressure on the opposition.
RCB needed to move on and southpaw Shivam Dube provided the timely strike, dispatching Ravi Bishnoi to consecutive sixes to amass 19 runs from the over.
Following Dube's dismissal in the 15th over, De Villiers finally joined Kohli for the late assault, which was eventually provided by Morris.
Royal Challengers Bangalore
P A Finch b Ashwin.....................20 (18)
D Padikkal c Pooran b A Singh..18 (12)
V Kohli c Rahul b M Shami........48 (39)
W Sundar c Jordan b Ashwin....13 (14)
S Dube c Rahul b Jordan..........23 (19)
AB de Villiers c Hooda b M Shami.2 (5)
C Morris not out...........................25 (8)
I Udana not out............................10 (5)
Extras: (b-4, lb-2, w-6)......................12
TOTAL: (20 overs)......................171-6
FoW: 1-38, 2-62, 3-86, 4-127, 5-134, 6-136
BOWLING: G Maxwell 4-0-28-0, M Shami 4-0-45-2, A Singh 2-0-20-1, R Bishnoi 3-0-29-0, M Ashwin 4-0-23-2,
C Jordan 3-0-20-1.
Kings XI Punjab
B KL Rahul not out......................................61 (49)
M Agarwal b Chahal...................................45 (25)
C Gayle run out............................................53 (45)
N Pooran not out..............................................6 (1)
Extras: (lb-3, w-9)................................................12
TOTAL: (20 overs).......................................177-2
FoW: 1-78, 2-171
BOWLING: C Morris 4-0-22-0, N Saini 4-0-21-0, Y Chahal 3-0-35-1, I Udana 2-0-14-0, M Siraj 3-0-44-0, W Sundar 4-0-38-0
