Royal Challenger Bangalore beat Kings XI Punjab by 17 runs in an encounter in Bangalore on Wednesday. AB de Villiers’ unbeaten 82 off 44 balls took RCB to a humongous total of 202/4 in 20 overs.
Navdeep Saini who who is one of India’s fastest bowlers bowled a fantastic penultimate to keep RCB’s hopes alive. He dismissed David Miller and Pooran, and also conceded just three runs. The Kings required 30 off the last two overs to take the game home, however the fabulous spell by Saini sealed it for RCB.
While, defending 27 off the final over, Umesh Yadav gave just ten runs fairing better than the previous game against CSK. He finished with great figures, 3/33.
The Challengers won four of their last five games.
While chasing openers KL Rahul and Chris Gayle added 42 in less than four overs to set the foundation. Gayle was the first to go at 23, however Mayank Agarwal continued the chase along with KL Rahul. The duo put up 59 runs for the second wicket, before Agarwal was picked up. With just four runs on the board with David Miller, KL Rahul was sent back to the dressing room.
Nicolas Pooran and David Miller thrashed Bangalore and it seemed as though they were sealing it, just then Miller and Pooran were sent off in a quick succession in the 19th over.
Earlier, when asked to bat first AB de Villiers got a wonderful half century and completed a 121 run stand along with Marcus Stoinis. The foreigners propelled RCB to a big score of 202.
De Villiers scored an 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 hammered 45 runs off Mohammad Shami and Hardus Viljoen.
Openers Parthiv Patel and Virat Kohli gave a rolling start getting 35 runs on board in 18 balls. However, Kohli was dismissed too soon by Shami. And just when Parthiv began to enjoy himself, he was dismissed off Murugan Ashwin after he smashed seven 4s and two sixes.
Then, RCB lost two quick wickets of Moeen Ali and Akashdeep Nath for 4 and 3 respectively, leaving RCB at 81 for 4. That was when De Villiers and Stoinis joined the party.