Punjab Kings (PBKS), who beat Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and back in the tournament in match 26 of the Vivo Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Harpreet Brar put up a fine all-round show, scoring 25 runs and scalping 3 wickets, while captain KL Rahul scored an unbeaten 91 off 57 deliveries as PBKS registered their third win of the season.
Chasing a challenging target of 180, RCB lost Devdutt Padikkal early after Riley Meredith, after being hit for a six, cleaned the left-hander up with the extra pace. Meanwhile, Virat Kohli, who creamed two fours inside the powerplay, was joined by Rajat Patidar as RCB moved to 36/1 after 6 overs.
Kohli clubbed his first maximum of the innings, smashing Harpreet straight down the ground as fifty was up for RCB in the 8th over. At the halfway stage of the innings, RCB was 62/1 before Harpreet Brar completely changed the course of the match. The left-arm spinner got two wickets in consecutive deliveries in the 11th over, including the big ones of Kohli and Glenn Maxwell after both batsmen were castled.
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PBKS then got rid of AB de Villiers, who was caught inside the circle as Harpreet scalped his third wicket of the match. Patidar then released some pressure after he took on Hooda and smacked a four and six each in the 14th over. However, the right-hander’s innings came to an end after he miscued one and was caught at long-on off Chris Jordan’s bowling.
Things further got difficult for RCB as they required 88 off the final five and lost two wickets in consecutive deliveries against Bishnoi. While Shahbaz Ahmed was caught in the deep, Daniel Sams was cleaned up with a googly. Harshal Patel and Kyle Jamieson added valuable runs down the order and nearly stitched a fifty-run partnership to get RCB close to the total. Patel smacked 3 fours and 2 sixes and scored 31 off 13 deliveries before he was caught by Bishnoi, who took an excellent catch in the deep.
RCB managed to score 145 in the 20 overs but fell well short of the target by 34 runs in the end. Earlier, PBKS, who were put in to bat first, made three changes – Meredith, Prabhsimran Singh, and Harpreet were included in the eleven.
Openers – Rahul and Prabhsimran – got off to a watchful start before Rahul smacked the first maximum of the game, in the second over. Prabhsimran accompanied the skipper with a four-off Sams in the third over. Jamieson provided an early breakthrough for RCB after Prabhsimran was caught inside the circle.
However, Chris Gayle came out with an aggressive intent and smashed 5 fours in the final over of powerplay against Jamieson and PBKS were 49/1 after 6 overs. The left-hander tonked 2 sixes against Yuzvendra Chahal and the fifty partnership was up for the second wicket off just 26 deliveries. Rahul got into the act and smashed a four and six each off Chahal in the leg-spinner’s second over and PBKS were placed at 90/1 after 10 overs.
Sams scalped the wicket of the dangerous-looking Gayle, who tried to go for the hook but ended up giving a simple catch to the keeper. Rahul added two maximums to the total, backed by his timing, and got to his half-century in the 11th over. However, PBKS lost another wicket after Nicholas Pooran was caught inside the circle off Jamieson for a duck.
RCB spinners provided two additional wickets after both Hooda and Shahrukh Khan got out. While Hooda was caught in the deep off Shahbaz Ahmed’s bowling, Shahrukh was cleaned up with a googly from Chahal. Harshal Patel, who was back to bowl at the death, conceded eighteen runs. Harpreet Brar crunched a four and six and Rahul finished the 18th over with a fine four.
Siraj conceded only 7 runs in the penultimate over but the last over belonged to the Punjab Kings. 22 runs came off the final over after Rahul smacked two fours and a six while Harpreet finished the innings in style with a maximum as PBKS put 179/5 on the board.
Brief Scores: Punjab Kings 179/5 (KL Rahul 91*, Chris Gayle 46; Kyle Jamieson 2/32) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 145/8 (Virat Kohli 35, Harshal Patel 31; Harpreet Brar 3/19) by 34 runs.
