On Friday night, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) beat Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium (Bengaluru) and opened their accounts in the points table.
The hosts RCB won the toss and decided to field first. They bowled out the visitors KXIP for 155 runs (19.2 overs). In reply, RCB chased down that target in 19.3 overs after losing 6 wickets.
Now, we will look at the hits and flops players of this match.
Hits
Umesh Yadav (RCB) – Umesh Yadav’s lethal second over shook the KXIP innings. While KXIP had a very good start of 32/0 in 3 overs, the scorecard was suddenly looking like 36/3 in 4 overs and the reason was Umesh Yadav.
It was Umesh’s second over. After dismissing Mayank Agarwal and Aaron Finch in the first two balls of that over, Umesh bowled Yuvraj Singh in the final ball of that over. Umesh had the bowling figure of 4-0-23-3 as he didn’t take any more wicket but his spell was enough effective for the team.
Umesh Yadav won the Player of the Match award at the end.
Also read: Turning Point of the Match
Ravichandran Ashwin (KXIP) – An all-round performance from the KXIP skipper. At first, he scored an important 33 runs off 21 balls at the final stage of KXIP innings which helped the team to cross the 150-run mark.
Later with the ball, Ashwin grabbed two important back-to-back wickets that brought back them into the game. Ashwin had the bowling figure of 4-0-30-2.
Also read: Ravichandran Ashwin’s last over dents Royal Challengers Bangalore
AB de Villiers (RCB) – The world-class batsman again showed his superb skill in the crucial time. When the team much needed his contribution, he took the responsibility to carry the innings and later his power-hitting brought the team closer to the target. The Proteas batsman scored 57 runs off 40 balls and showed the path to the victory. When he was dismissed, his team was the edge of the victory.
Flops
Mohit Sharma (KXIP) – KXIP pacer Mohit Sharma was the most expensive bowler in this game. With his inconsistent bowling, Mohit had the bowling figure of 3.3-0-45-0. It was too much for his team who had only 155 runs on the board. The right-arm pacer was never looking positive and effective in this game.
Chris Woakes (RCB) – RCB right-arm pacer Chris Woakes had the bowling figure of 3.2-0-36-2 with the 10.80 economy rate, which is the worst economy rate in the RCB bowling line-up in this game. He got the new ball as he bowled the first over where he conceded 16 runs.
Later, he tried to make a comeback and succeeded to take two wickets but failed against the top-order batsmen.
Axar Patel (KXIP) – KXIP’s only retained player Axar Patel has to take more responsibility in this game. He was dismissed cheaply (2 runs off 3 balls) in an important time when he had to take the responsibility to carry the innings in patience.
Though the left-arm spinner provided an early breakthrough by dismissing the dangerous opening batsman Brendon McCullum for a golden duck, Axar needed to be much more effective in this game. He had a modest bowling figure of 4-0-25-1.
