Ahmedabad: A collective allround display powered Punjab Kings to register a dominating 34-run win over Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League on Friday (April 30). Harpreet Brar (3/19) and Ravi Bishnoi (2/17) ran havoc at the Narendra Modi Stadium restricting RCB on 145/8 in 20 overs after KL Rahul (91 not out) and Chris Gayle (46) sent Punjab to 179/5 in 20 overs.
Challenge accomplished! ✅😎#SaddaPunjab #PunjabKings #IPL2021 #PBKSvRCB pic.twitter.com/JMyKacjw0l
— Punjab Kings (@PunjabKingsIPL) April 30, 2021
RCB’s batting collapsed horrendously chasing a competetive 180. Riley Meredith ignited the flame for Punjab sending Devdutt Padikkal’s stumps for cartwheeling in the second over before Brar wrapped the RCB’ star trio.
He first dismissed both Virat Kohli and Maxwell on consecutive balls before making it a memorable dismissing AB de Villiers. Rajat Patidar (31) and Harshal Patel (31) tried the best but the asking rate was way too much to deal with. Youngster Ravi Bishoni too played his part alongside the rest of the bowlers clinching a dominating victory.
Earlier, Punjab’s innings rode on the shoulder of their talisman Rahul. Together with Gayle, he added 80 runs for the second wicket steadying the ship. Gayle looked well set for big innings but fell to Daniel Sams. Skipper, Rahul though took the charge scoring an unbeaten 57-ball 91 accelerating the innings alongside Brar (25 not out). In the final over, they both clobbered Harshal Patel all around the park to get to a competitive total.
RCB’s batting dependency on their superstars was once again exposed on Friday with their middle-order lacking enough firepower to control the tempo. Harshal despite having the purple cap has been leaking runs at the death which is concern. Punjab can only hope that their skipper hold the anchor of their batting line up for the rest of the season while their bowlers have been good in the last couple of games.
Brief Scores: Punjab Kings 179/5 in 20 overs (KL Rahul 91 not out, Chris Gayle 46; Kyle Jamieson 2/32) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 145/8 in 20 overs (Virat Kohli 35, Rajat Patidar 31; Harpreet Brar 3/19, Ravi Bishnoi 2/17) by 34 runs.
