IPL 2017 | Brilliant Kings spoil AB de Villiersâ return
BCCI
Kings XI Punjab secured their second successive win of the IPL by thrashing Royal Challengers Bangalore by 8 wickets with 5 overs to spare. Earlier, AB de Villiersâ late surge of 89 runs helped RCB post a total of 148 runs, but as it turned out, it was not even close to being a competitive score.
Brief scores: Royal Challengers Bangalore 148/4(AB de Villiers 89*, Mandeep Singh 28; Varun Aaron 2/21, Axar Patel 1/21) lost to Kings XI Punjab (Hashim Amla 58*, Glenn Maxwell 43*; Tymal Mills 1/22, Yuzvendra Chahal 1/28) by 8 wickets.
Shane Watson surprised everyone at the toss, not by opting to bat or by announcing the return of AB de Villiers but with the news that Chris Gayle, who was just 25 runs short of 10,000 T20 runs, had been dropped from the playing XI. The hosts, too, made one change to their winning XI against Pune replacing Swapnil Singh with Varun Aaron.
Punjab get off to yet another impressive start courtesy Axar Patel and coÂ
Playing tight, organized, and disciplined cricket wins you plenty of games, especially in the long run and Kings XI Punjabâs bowlers did just that right from the outset by pushing Bangalore to a precarious position in the very first over. Axar Patel, with a beautiful arm-ball, dismissed skipper Shane Watson for 0 and Vishnu Vinod followed suit while hitting a Sandeep Sharma outswinger straight down Glenn Maxwellâs throat. Making full use of the pace and bounce, Varun Aaron, then, caught in-form Kedar Jadhav plumb in front of his stumps to leave the visitors in tatters. But de Villiers and Mandeep Singh ensured that RCB did not fall apart completely - even if they kept the run rate at a mere 5.30 till the halfway stage.Â
ABD shows RCB what they have been missingÂ
Mandeep and de Villiers tried to break the shackle but Punjabâs bowlers and fielders refused to budge from their position of strength. Wriddhiman Sahaâs gem of catch sent Mandeep packing for 28 in the 14th over and it appeared that the match was heading to an early finish with Bangalore at 68/4. De Villiers, however, had different plans as he decided to drop the cautious approach and decided to bring the beast in him to the fore. Mr. 360-degree completed his half-century in style, hammering Marcus Stoinis for a six on the last ball of the 17th over. But that was just the beginning as âRuthless de Villiersâ, as the electronic scoreboard called him, score 38 runs off just 12 balls to take RCB to a defendable total of 148/4.Â
Punjab assert their dominance early
Chasing a target of 149 runs, Punjab came out all guns blazing as openers, Hashim Amla and Manan Vohra, started scoring at almost 10 runs an over. Vohra showed early promise, launching a huge six and 4 boundaries but his innings came to a premature end when Tymal Mills caught him plumb in front of his stumps. Amla, however, carried on and ensured Punjab didnât run out of steam. Even though Chahalâs googly got the better of Axar Patel reducing the Punjab side to 78/2 in 8.1 overs, Amla and Maxwell took the âhomeâ side to 97/2 at the midway point of their innings.Â
Amla and Maxwell complete the job for the Kings
While the duo continued in cruise mode, Watson conceded 12 runs to make the Punjab win a formality. Pawan Negi, who bowled a match-winning spell in the last game, was finally brought on to stem the run flow, but it had little effect as Maxwell hit him for a four to make his intent clear. With 16 runs off the penultimate over, Maxwell took the game to a hit away and ensured that he finished things off in style smashing Chahal for a six over long-off. With the six, the Punjab skipper completed 1000 runs in the IPL along with securing a second consecutive victory for his team.Â
