A scintillating show by A.B. de Villiers (57, 40 balls, 2 fours, 4 sixes) helped Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Kings XI Punjab by four wickets in an Indian Premier League match at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
After dismissing Punjab for 155, the RCB star-studded batting line-up wobbled a bit with Brendon McCullum dismissed in second ball of the innings. Quinton de Kock and Virat Kohli added 33 for the second wicket but with Kohli failing to read young spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman and losing his stumps in the process, RCB's chase was not on the expected lines.
Ravichandran Ashwin strucke twice, in as many balls, in the 12th over to remove de Kock and Sarfaraz Khan but de Villiers and Mandeep Singh steadied the RCB ship.
Washington Sundar and Chris Woakes helped RCB cross the finish line in the 20th over.
Earlier, pacer Umesh Yadav rocked the Kings XI Punjab innings with a three-wicket burst in an over as it was bowled out for 155.
Put into bat, KXIP was reduced to 36 for 3 in the fourth over after Umesh (3/23) dismissed Mayank Aggarwal (15), Aaron Finch (0) and Yuvraj Singh (4) in the space of six balls in his second over to leave the visiting side in trouble early in their innings.
Off-spinner Washington then took over in the later part of the KXIP innings with two wicket apiece as the visiting side could not even complete its allotted 20-over quota as it was all out in 19.2 overs.
Only Lokesh Rahul put up some resistance as he hit 47 off just 30 balls at the top of the order with the help of two fours and four sixes. Ashwin contributed 33 off 21 balls while Karun Nair made 29.
TOSS UPDATE: Royal Challengers Bangalore chooses to bowl.
Virat Kohli is enthused by the roar of the crowd in Royal Challengers Bangalore's first home game. He confirms no change in his line-up.
One change for Kings XI Punjab: Aaron Finch comes in for David Miller.
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Royal Challengers Bangalore may boast of a batting line-up of heavyweights capable of match-turning blitzkriegs. If Brendon McCullum fails to fire up the order, captain and talisman Virat Kohli, and South African freak AB de Villiers can take matters into their hands. So far, however, it is the unheralded Kings XI Punjab that has broken batting records — K. L. Rahul's fastest fifty took R. Ashwin's team to a smooth victory over Delhi Daredevils in Mohali.
RCB has also shown its batting might, however, with Mandeep Singh, McCullum, and AB de Villiers making useful contributions in their previous match.
Can the two teams provide another extravaganza in the batting-friendly track of Bengaluru?
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