Hopes alive for RCB to get through play-offs; demolishes Kings XI Punjab by 10 wickets

NewsBharati    15-May-2018
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Indore, May 15: Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Monday demolished Kings XI Punjab by 10 wickets at the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore on Monday and kept their hopes alive for play-offs.

 

After opting to bowl, RCB bowled and fielded with plenty of intent and aggression, and dismissed the home side KXIP for 88. The opening pair of Virat Kohli and Parthiv Patel then knocked off the required runs in 8.1 overs to lead RCB to a huge 10-wicket win.

Put in to bat, KXIP were cautious, to begin with, scoring only one run from the first eleven balls of the match. But a slight error in length from Tim Southee was enough for KL Rahul to break the shackles; the right-hander sent the ball on its way into the stands at square-leg. Chris Gayle dropped on 0, collected three boundaries in the fourth over bowled by Southee.


Early in the fifth over, Rahul hit Umesh Yadav for a six. It is at this stage that the wheels came off the KXIP innings. Yadav dismissed both the openers in the same over and in the following over Karun Nair who was sent out to bat at number three, guided one to the lone fielder at slip.

Marcus Stoinis, sent out to bat at number five, yorked himself against YuzvendraChahal, Mayank Agarwal was strangled down the leg-side, and manic running resulted in three lower-order batsmen being run out. Only three KXIP batsmen got into double-digits including Rahul 21, Gayle 18 and Aaron Finch 26. KXIP, 36-0 at one stage, had lost all ten wickets for the addition of 52 runs to be bowled out for 88 in 15.1 over.


RCB’s chase was a matter of formality. Sensing an opportunity for his team to enhance their net run rate, the RCB captain Virat Kohli walked out to open the innings in the company of Parthiv Patel. The latter set the early pace, racing to 16 from 6 balls before Kohli caught up and even went ahead of his opening partner. Kohli, who struck the winning hit, finished unbeaten on 48 and Parthiv was 40 not out from 22 balls. The unbeaten 92-run opening partnership would be RCB’s best opening stand of the season.


As a result of this convincing win, RCB received a fillip to their net run rate; prior to the match, their NRR was -0.261. After the 10-wicket win, their NRR jumped to 0.22. At the other end, KXIP’s net run rate suffered a massive blow and dropped further to -0.52.

Brief Scores:

Kings XI Punjab 88 in 15.1 overs (Aaron Finch 26, Umesh Yadav 3-23) lost to

Royal Challengers Bangalore 92-0 in 8.1 overs (Virat Kohli 48*, Parthiv Patel 40*) by 10 wickets.

Man of the Match:

Umesh Yadav, for his spell of 3-23.