Match Details
Arya- Royal Challengers Bangalore were up with a tall ask chasing a massive target of 210 runs. To have any chance in the run chase, the opening duo of Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli needed to get them off to a flyer. For a change, Virat Kohli got off to a brisk start and looked in good touch. He struck two fours of Arshdeep Singh in his first over and then followed it up with a six of Harpreet Brar. However he again found a way to get out of Kagisbo Rabda as he gloved an attempted pull onto his thigh pad and it lobbed up in the air and straight down the throat of the short fine leg fielder.
Faf du Plessis looked a bit scratchy in the shots he played and was eventually dismissed by Rishi Dhawan on 10. The pressure was well and truly on RCB. Mahipal Lomror came out in the middle and started off with a beautiful six but fell the very next delivery in the same over of Rishi Dhawan. From there on, it was a great stand between Rajat Patidar and Glenn Maxwell which got RCB back into the game. Maxwell struck some lusty blows and was in his innovative best.
Rajat Patidar played the perfect foil to Maxwell and struck a four and a couple of sixes during his knock of 26 of 21 deliveries before falling to Rahul Chahar. Glenn Maxwell was dismissed the very next over of Harpreet Brar and from there on, only a DK special could have saved RCB from the blushes. The Punjab bowlers bowled brilliantly against DK and minimised the angles he loves playing with. He was dismissed by Arshdeep Singh in his 3rd over and it was bound to be the final nail in the coffin for RCB.
While RCB knew they had lost the game but they had to make sure that they didn’t lose by a huge margin which would have further dented their already poor net run rate. The lower order found some boundaries towards rhe final overs and only managed to take RCB to a score of 155 in the allotted 20 overs. Kagiso Rabada was the pick of the bowlers for Punjab Kings bagging three while Rishi Dhawan and Rahul Chahar chipped in with a couple.
Earlier in the day it was an onslaught from Jonny Bairstow which got Punjab off to a flying start after Faf du Plessis won the toss and put them in. He raced off to a 21 balls half-century and Punjab went onto score 83 in the powerplay. However it was some good bowling in the middle overs which got RCB back in the game. Wanindu Hasaranga was quite exceptional yet again and bagged two important wickets. After the dismissal of Bairstow's wicket there was a lull in the scoring rate but Livingstone was there till the end to take them over the 200 mark. Livingstone continued his dream run and was eventually dismissed in the final over after making 70 of just 42 deliveries which included 5 fours and 4 sixes.