Royal Challengers Bangalore kept their hopes alive of reaching the playoff stage by crushing Kings XI Punjab in the 48th match of VIVO IPL 2018 played at Holkar Stadium, Indore. Winning the toss, RCB captain Virat Kohli won an important toss and elected to field first. A great bowling display by Umesh Yadav and plus poor batting display by Kings XI Punjab saw the hosts bowled out for a paltry total. The RCB openers chased down the target with ease.
Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to field first. Kings XI Punjab openers Chris Gayle and KL Rahul started off to a good start adding 36 runs for the first wicket. Umesh Yadav got the breakthrough dismissing inform KL Rahul for 21. The other opener Chris Gayle was soon dismissed for 18 runs. In the same over, Karun was dismissed cheaply for 1 run.
At the end of 6 overs, Kings XI Punjab was struggling at 47 for 3. After the power play overs, Royal Challengers Bangalore picked wickets at regular intervals. Marcus Stoinis, Mayank Agarwal again failed to contribute any runs. Aaron Finch played some brilliant strokes before being dismissed by Moeen Ali for 26. After that none of lower order batsmen could provide resistance and be bowled out for 88 runs in 15.1 overs. R Ashwin, Mohit Sharma and Ankit Rajpoot committed suicide by getting run out.
For Royal Challengers Bangalore, Umesh Yadav was the pick of bowlers with 3 for 23. The rest of RCB bowlers showed great discipline.
Chasing the paltry total of 89, Royal Challengers Bangalore openers Parthiv Patel and Captain Virat Kohli started on an aggressive note with attacking stroke play. Both batsmen attacked the Kings XI Punjab bowling line up. At the end of 6 overs, RCB scored 66 runs.
Parthiv Patel and Virat Kohli completed the demolition job of Kings XI Punjab winning the match by 10 wickets with 71 balls to spare. It was a dominating Parthiv Patel and Virat Kohli completed the demolition job of Kings XI Punjab winning the match by 10 wickets with 71 balls to spare.erformance by RCB team and also increased their net run rate. The Kings XI Punjab bowling also was a disappointment.
RCB 92 for 0 in 8.1 overs ( Virat Kohli 48*, Parthiv Patel 40*,) beat
KXIP 88 in 15.1 overs (Aaron Finch 26, KL Rahul 21, Umesh Yadav 3/21) by 10 wickets.
KXIP captain R Ashwin said: It was a disappointing performance by our batsmen. The bowlers have given us points. With Mumbai Indians in the next game at Mumbai, we need to lift our game up and also perform well in Pune also. We have a good bowling attack but our international players did perform according to the expectations.
RCB captain Virat Kohli said: The last week has been crazy. After today’s match, we think that we can qualify for the playoff stages. Kings XI Punjab batting line-up is strong and hope to continue the winning momentum in the next two matches.
Man of the match Umesh Yadav said: The last few games I was taken for fours and sixes. It was a great bowling spell and took important wickets today to put them on the backfoot. Now we must continue the form in the next two matches.
Kolkata Knight Riders will take on Rajasthan Royals in tomorrow’s match at Eden Garden’s, Kolkata.