Punjab Kings' (PBKS) Shahrukh Khan, Odean Smith along with Mayank Agarwal, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Liam Livingstone, all powered their way towards victory as they defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in their league opener on Sunday by 5 wickets.
Surely no one scored a fifty on their side, but Punjab managed to chase down more than the 205 runs target with an over to spare at the DY Patil Sports Academy in Mumbai.
Talking about RCB bowlers, it seemed they had a lot of runs to play with but the opening combination of Dhawan-Agarwal made it difficult for them. The duo was off to a flier and the foundation was set. They did keep losing wickets at regular intervals but it never stopped them from achieving their target.
Earlier, Faf du Plessis played captain's knock of 88 and Virat Kohli scored an unbeaten 41 as RCB scored 205/2 in 20 overs in Match-3 of the IPL. Put in to bat first Royal Challengers Bangalore got off to a good start as captain Faf du Plessis led from the front and attacked Punjab Kings bowlers.
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The RCB skipper du Plessis along with his opening partner Anuj Rawat scored 50 runs for the opening wicket. The opening partnership was finally broken by leg-spinner Rahul Chahar as he cleaned up Anuj Rawat for 21 as Punjab lost the first wicket for 50 in the seventh over.
Virat Kohli walked in to bat with his skipper as the duo batted brilliantly to take the team to a strong position as RCB went past the triple-figure mark in 12.3 overs.
Faf du Plessis notched up his half-century off just 41 balls and he also brought a fifty partnership with Kohli. The two-time finalist RCB reached 150 in 15.3 overs. Faf-Kohli duo went on to score a century partnership as RCB looked all set for a big first-innings total.
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Left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh finally broke the 118-run partnership as he got the prized scalp of RCB captain du Plessis caught by Shahrukh Khan for 88 off 57 balls. The South African batter struck seven sixes in his blistering knock of 88.
Despite the fall of Faf du Plessis` wicket, the run rate did not fall as Dinesh Karthik joined Kohli and they both kept toying away with Punjab`s bowling attack.
Virat Kohli`s unbeaten 41 off 29 balls and Dinesh Karthik`s 32 not out off 14 balls helped Royal Challengers Bangalore score 205/2 in 20 overs setting a 206-run target.
