Hello and welcome to Sportstar 's live blog of Saturday's Indian Premier League (IPL 2019) clash between Kings XI Punjab and Royal Challengers Bangalore being played at Mohali's PCA Stadium.
RCB 168/2, after 19 Overs: Finally, looks like the Bengaluru franchise is nearing its first victory. Only six required to win now off as many balls. De Villiers' final six was pure Mr. 360 degree nostalgia!
RCB 154/2, after 18 overs: How could Murugan Ashwin after taking such a wonderful catch two overs back spill a sitter like that? Lifeline granted to Stoinis. Ravi Ashwin is clearly not a happy man. 18 runs come from that over. 20 runs required from 12 balls now.
RCB 136/2, after 17 Overs: KXIP skipper Ashwin helps add pressure on to RCB now by bowling another tight over. Six off that.
RCB 130/2, after 16 Overs: RCB requires 44 runs required off 24 balls at a run rate of 11 per over.
RCB 128/2, after 15.3 Overs: And Shami provides the breakthrough! Ohh, that's a big wicket. Virat Kohli departs and for a moment it felt like the ball was destined for the ropes. Kohli pulls this one straight to Murugan Ashwin who takes a wonderful catch.
RCB 126/1, after 15 Overs: Is RCB taking things a bit too slow now? Four runs scored from the over. Murugan Ashwin completes his spell. 4-0-24-0 reads his figures.
RCB 122/1, after 14 Overs: Andrew Tye, five runs. After the fifth ball of the over, Kohli waves at the square leg umpire after a short one goes over his head. Ulhas Gandhe refuses to signal it a wide. Interesting point to be noted, the umpires officiating this match are Gandhe and S Ravi. Surely, both of them are fresh in everyone's minds right?
RCB 117/1, after 13 Overs: Sam Curran maintains a similar length throughout the over. ABD scoops one away for a boundary off the fourth ball.
RCB 107/1, after 12 Overs: What is evident is, Kohli and ABD are not in a hurry to finish things off. They are carefully rotating the strike, occasionally going for a boundary or two. 67 runs required from 48 balls, RR: 8.91, Req RR: 8.37
RCB 98/1, after 11 Overs: Virat Kohli gets to his half-century off the last ball of the R Ashwin over (in 37 balls). RCB would be hoping for him to stay in the middle till the end and finish things off. This is Kohli's second fifty in this IPL.
RCB 88/1, after 10 Overs: Eight runs come from the Murugan Ashwin over as a sloppy misfielding from KL Rahul sees the first ball race away to the boundary.
RCB 80/1, after 9 overs: Spinners effectively operating in tandem from both ends now! Remember, the same strategy curbed the run flow in the first innings initially. Will we have a repetition of events here? The required run rate has climbed up to 8.54
RCB 74/1, after 8 Overs: Another tight over from Murugan Ashwin as he maintains the off stump line more or less. Doesn't experiment much. Reminds me of Mo in the first innings. Leaks just three runs, despite the crease harbouring two hard hitters.
RCB 71/1, after 7 Overs: Andrew Tye, coming in to bowl his first, goes fuller with each ball, until the last ball strays and hits it pretty short as well. ABD has no issues in slapping it over to the extra cover boundary. Eight runs off the over.
RCB 63/1, after 6 Overs: End of Powerplay: M Ashwin has been brought into the attack and he does a fairly decent job. We got two boundaries coming from that over but the first one was a misfield from Mayank Agarwal. 111 runs required from 14 overs, RR: 10.50, Req RR: 7.92
RCB 54/1, after 5 Overs: The dangerous AB de Villiers is the new man in and off the very first ball he faces he shows mere sparks of what he is capable of. A back foot punch sees the ball race past the mid-off fielder. He follows it up with yet another beautiful boundary towards third man one ball later.
RCB 44/1, after 4 Overs: (3.5) Parthiv decides to go the distance nice and straight, but doesn't get much wood onto that. A slower one from R Ashwin does the trick! Mayank Agarwal runs in from long-off to take a simple catch.
RCB 36/0, after 3 Overs: Sam Curran has been brought back into the attack. Parthiv and Kohli, meanwhile are in the mood to make it big today. Timeline: 4, 0, 2, 1, 4, 4
RCB 21/0, after 2 Overs: Virat Kohli welcomes Mohammed Shami by hitting two back-to-back boundaries. That is not all. A single later, Parthiv Patel slaps another towards the midwicket region. 15 runs conceded.
RCB 6/0, after 1 Over: Parthiv Patel gets off the mark with a glorious cover drive to see the ball race towards the fence in no time. Except that, just two runs come from the over.
Virat Kohli and Parthiv Patel to begin the chase, Sam Curran with the new ball.
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KXIP 162/4, after 19 overs: Not Kohli's day for sure! He spills a sitter which would have seen Gayle walk. One review could have made all the difference in the first over, he must be thinking.
And as if that wasn't enough, Umesh gifts KXIP a wide and Gayle dispatches him to the stands off the next ball.
KXIP 146/4, after 18 overs: Navdeep Saini concedes eight, Mandeep hammering a boundary off the fourth ball.
KXIP 138/4, after 17 Overs: Mohammed Siraj has come in to bowl. Will Gayle cash in on this opportunity? Of course, he will!
He has gone BIG off the third ball! But Siraj has managed to keep his calm and bounce back into the game. 11 runs from that over.
KXIP 127/4, after 16 Overs: Navdeep Saini leaks just five runs. The spinners have boosted the pacers' confidence as well. The batsmen seem to be having a little problem with the short ball. But how long can RCB sustain the good show with Gayle still at the crease?
KXIP 122/4, after 15 Overs: The spinners operating in tandem from both the ends sees a change in the script in favour of the visitor at PCA. Chahal returns figures of 4-0-33-2.
KXIP 114/4, after 14 Overs : This was coming, sooner or later. Mo traps Curran who tries to go for a reverse sweep. RCB back in the control of things at Mohali.
KXIP 110/3, after 13 Overs: Mohammed Siraj has been brought back into the attack. And he has repaid the faith shown by Kohli. He has sent the dangerous Sarfaraz Khan back but the bigger problem (read: Gayle) is still at large. Sarfaraz looks to go for a pull shot but has edged it to Parthiv Patel.
KXIP 102/2, after 12 Overs: Sheer brilliance from Moeen Ali as the spinners continue to bring RCB back into the game, one step at a time. Three runs from the over. The batsmen seem happy with what they have on the scoreboard for the moment.
KXIP 99/2, after 11 Overs: Nine runs come from that over. Chahal is putting up quite a decent show and as expected Gayle is taking no risks. Sarfaraz Khan, the new man in, though has miscued a sweep to the fine leg fence once. Two more wickets and Chahal would enjoy sporting the Purple Cap.
KXIP 90/2, after 10 Overs: Another good over from Moeen. Similar strategy, similar outcome. Four runs from that over.
KXIP 86/2, after 9 Overs: Chahal manages to trick Mayank Agarwal now. Castled! Misjudges the line completely and he has missed it by miles.
And Chris Gayle brings up his half-century off 28 balls. This man makes everything look so easy!
KXIP 77/1, after 8 Overs: Moeen Ali tries a number of variations: the shorter one, slower one, tosses it up twice too. The idea works except for the lone boundary where Mayank tapped into the pace of a quicker one from Moeen.
KXIP 69/1, after 7 Overs: Chahal concedes just three runs after getting the prized scalp of KL Rahul. Will this be the turning point of the match?
KXIP 66/1, after 6.2 Overs:Kohli introduces spin from one end and it works magically! Rahul is GONE! The overconfidence kicks in as he steps out to go straight over Yuzi Chahal for a second maximum.
Maybe more so, because he wanted to snatch the Orange Cap from David Warner in style (he required just two more runs).
KXIP 60/0, after 6 Overs: Gayle's 101 on battering Mohammed Siraj! That man has been in poor form in this edition of the league and Gayle decides to rub salt on his wounds, and quite literally so, as he returns from an injury. Timeline: 4, 6, 4, 0, 6, 4 . I do not think there is anything further that I need to add here.
KXIP 36/0, after 5 Overs: KL Rahul takes over the baton from Gayle now! Two back-to-back boundaries to welcome Umesh. Umesh is looking to pitch fuller to KL but that shouldn't bother an in-form batsman. Rahul meanwhile, is just eight runs away from getting the Orange Cap.
KXIP 26/0, after 4 Overs: Saini has been brought back into the attack and we already have the first hint of a chance there. Rahul would have been gone if the fourth ball of the over hadn't fallen just short of the mid-off fielder, Moeen Ali.
KXIP 21/0, after 3 Overs: Well... well... well... looks like Gayle is in a good mood and today might just be one of those Gaylestorm days as they call it!
Umesh has been greeted with a 4+6 off the first two balls of the over. The bowler must be cursing himself for not going for the review in the first over.
KXIP 7/0, after 2 Overs: The wicket would be assisting the pacers a little, as is evident from Navdeep Saini's over. The ball is beginning to show a bit of movement away from the left-handed Gayle.
A little difficulty in the beginning but Gayle finally goes for a boundary off the fourth ball. Hoicked off a thick edge.
Ohh no, the giant screen shows that if RCB would have taken the review in the last over, Gayle would have been back to the pavilion for good, LBW. Unlucky Umesh!
KXIP 2/0, after 1 Over: Umesh Yadav starts off things with the new ball and does a pretty decent job with it. The ball doesn't stray much and he restricts himself to bowling in the tight areas.
Things will get difficult for Kohli and Co. in case they lose this match. Mathematically, you have to have eight wins to make it to the playoffs.
You can make do with seven wins as well but then you have to have a very high NRR which is like a distant dream for Royal Challengers Bangalore at this moment.
TOSS UPDATE: Royal Challengers Bangalore has won the toss and opted to field .
The home side comes into the tie after a heart-wrenching last ball loss to Mumbai Indians. RCB also endured a loss in its previous encounter, its sixth in as many matches, to Delhi Capitals. Needless to say, both sides will be eager to claim a victory this evening.
Read our correspondent Rakesh Rao's preview:
Kings XI senses chance against battered RCB
Royal Challengers Bangalore will look to snap its six-match losing streak in IPL-12, at the PCA Stadium where Kings XI Punjab has won all three matches so far.
Three weeks ago when the tournament commenced, none would have visualised this scenario — R. Ashwin’s men entering the second half of the campaign with four wins and an exasperated Virat Kohli’s brigade still searching for its first victory.
FOLLOW: 2019 IPL FULL COVERAGE
Usually, teams aim for an eighth win to ensure a place in the playoffs. Obviously, Punjab is far closer to the target than Bangalore is. Notwithstanding the fact that Kings XI faces a struggling RCB twice in its next seven matches, the side is optimistic of winning at least four more times and reach the playoffs.
Well rested
RCB, hoping for mathematically-possible eight straight wins, returns to action well rested. It remains to be seen how this six-day break helps rejuvenate this beleaguered side on Saturday.
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Royal Challengers’ embarrassing defeats have hurt its esteem. The inadequacy of the bowling resources stood reinforced when the side could not defend 205 at home against Kolkata Knight Riders.
In these testing times for bowling coach Ashish Nehra, Kohli, too, must be tired of searching for “positives” from each defeat.
Preferred choice
With its pride badly bruised, RCB can be expected to come very hard at its rival in search of redemption. Considering the dew-soaked ground here, as seen in the previous matches, batting second is the preferred choice. Therefore, winning the toss is crucial.
Ashwin, twice lucky with the toss, knows if there was ever a time to beat RCB, it is now. If K.L. Rahul’s maturity has kept Kings XI’s batting unit in shape, the bowlers have done reasonably well too.
Overall, considering the composition, Punjab has found the balance that has so far eluded Royal Challengers.
( The match will begin at 8pm and will be streamed live on Hotstar )
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