In their second match of the tournament, Royal Challengers Bangalore tasted their first success of IPL 2018 by beating Kings XI Punjab in the 8th match at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore. Virat Kohli won the toss and invited Kings XI Punjab into bat. Despite KL Rahul 47, R Ashwin 33, Karun Nair 29, Kings XI Punjab were bowled out for 155. Royal Challengers won the match in the last over with AB de Villiers and Quinton de Kock the top scorers.
Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to field first. KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal provided a quick-fire start scoring 32 runs for the first wicket. Umesh Yadav took 3 wickets in an over dismissing Agarwal, Aaron Finch and Yuvraj Singh. At the end of 6 overs, Kings XI Punjab scored 50 for 3.
KL Rahul continued the good form that he displayed in the previous match against Delhi Daredevils. He and Karun Nair steadied the innings with 58 runs stand for the 4th wicket. KL Rahul was dismissed in 12th over for 47. Captain Ravichandran Ashwin contributed with 33 runs. Kings XI Punjab was bowled out for 155 in 19.2 overs. Umesh Yadav was the pick of bowlers for RCB taking 3 for 23. Chris Woakes, Washington Sundar, Kulwant Khejroliya took 2 wickets each. Yuzvendra Chahal also bowled well taking 1 wicket.
Chasing 156, Royal Challengers Bangalore got off to a poor start losing the wicket of Brendon McCullum on the very first ball. Virat Kohli looked good with his timing scoring 21 runs off 16 balls. Mujeeb Ur Rahaman dismissed RCB captain Kohli. Kohli and Quinton de Kock added 33 runs for the 2nd wicket. At the end of 6 overs, Royal Challengers Bangalore posted 41 for 2.
Quinton de Kock and AB de Villiers steadied RCB innings with 54 runs stand for the 3rd wicket. Kings XI Punjab captain dismissed Quinton de Kock and Sarfaraz Khan in successive balls. AB de Villiers and Mandeep Singh struggled to time the ball. In the 17th AB de Villiers and Mandeep Singh smashed Mujeeb Ur Rahman for 19 runs to change the course of the match in favour of RCB.
AB de Villiers completed his half-century off 36 balls. Both Mandeep Singh and AB de Villiers added 59 runs for the 5th wicket. In the same over, Mandeep Singh was run out. Washington Sundar and Chris Woakes added 9 runs and helped RCB win their first match. Â Sundar hit a boundary off the first ball to ease the pressure. Royal Challengers Bangalore won the match by 4 wickets with 3 balls to spare.
RCB 159 for 6 in 19.3 overs ( AB de Villiers 57, Quinton de Kock 45, R Ashwin 2/30) beat
Kings XI Punjab 155 in 19.2 overs ( KL Rahul 47, R Ashwin 33, Karun Nair 29, Umesh Yadav 3/23) by 4 wickets.
Kings XI Punjab captain R Ashwin said: I am happy with the way our boys fought. There was a lot of dew but good bowlers are good bowlers. We were probably 20-30 runs short. I cant ask anything from my boys.
RCB captain Kohli said: a First home win is always good. The bowlers did a great job with Washington Sundar, Umesh Yadav, Khejroliya, Woakes restricting the opposition. Pitch at Bangalore is much better than the last year. We lost two wickets in two balls last game.
Man of the match Umesh Yadav said: The pitch today was slow as Kolkata one was having bounce and kicking at length. I am just trying to bowl a hard length and into the wicket. I just don’t worry about variations and keep the things simple.
There are two matches lined up for tomorrow. The first one will feature Mumbai Indians take on Delhi Daredevils at Mumbai from 4 PM and the second one Kolkata Knight Riders take on Sunrisers Hyderabad at Eden Garden’s, Kolkata.
