The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have registered a hat-trick of wins after a double hat-trick of losses at the start of the season and have gained some momentum as well. They defended 202 runs at the M Chinnaswamy stadium and this time, their death bowling was at par. Umesh Yadav, who had almost conceded 26 runs in the final over against CSK, bowled superbly in the 18th and 20th overs as they defeated the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) by 17 runs.
During the toss, the RCB skipper said that they have made two changes in their squad as Dale Steyn and Pawan Negi made way for Tim Southee and Washington Sundar. On the other hand, KXIP also made a couple of changes as Ankit Rajpoot and Nicholas Pooran came back to the squad in Harpreet Brar and Sam Curran.
WATCH – When The Lost Ball Found In The Pocket Of The Umpire
Parthiv Patel started smashing the KXIP bowlers from the word go. However, RCB lost their skipper in the 4th over of Mohammed Shami and Parthiv took the revenge for the same. He smacked Shami for as many as 18 runs in the final over of the powerplay with the help of three fours and a six. However, in the 7th over itself, Patel was dismissed by Murugan Ashwin.
WATCH – AB de Villiers Smashed One-handed Six Out Of The Ground
From 70/1 in the 6 overs, RCB came down to 81/4 at the end of the 9th over as Moeen Ali and Akshdeep Nath were dismissed by R Ashwin and Hardus Viljoen. However, then AB de Villiers and Marcus Stoinis decided to stay till the end. Both of them stuck in the middle and decided to go behind the bowlers in the last four overs when they smashed as many as 64 runs.
However, in the 19th over RCB smashed 21 runs off Shami as De Villiers smashed three consecutive sixes in that over and one of those went out of the ground. The next over of Viljoen was even bigger as they smashed 27 runs in that over with the help of three sixes and a couple of fours. This time Stoinis was the main hitter as he smashed two pairs of six followed by a four on the last fours balls of the over and ABD had started the over with a six. RCB reached a total of 202/4 in their quota of 20 overs.
WATCH – Last Over Carnage From De Villiers And Stoinis
During the chase, KL Rahul and Chris Gayle came out all guns blazing as they smashed 36 runs in the first three overs itself. Umesh Yadav was bowling the 4th over and Gayle started it with smashing the six over long-on and on the very next ball he attempted the same but failed as De Villiers took a comfortable catch at the long-on.
KXIP scored as many as 68 runs in the powerplay as Rahul and Mayank Agarwal carried forward the momentum but both of them were dismissed in the 10th and 11th over respectively. After their dismissal, David Miller and Pooran decided to take Punjab over the line as they scored as many as 68 runs for the 4th wicket.
WATCH – AB De Villiers Takes Two Incredible Catches In One Over
But the Miller got out in the 19th over of Navdeep Saini followed by Pooran in the same over itself and the game got over after that as they needed 30 runs in the last two overs, still, they lost the game by 17 runs as in the last over as well, KXIP lost two wickets.
Brief Score:
Royal Challengers Bangalore – 202/4 in 20 overs (AB de Villiers: 82*, M Stoinis 46*; R Ashwin 1/15) defeated Kings XI Punjab – 185/7 in 20 overs (N Pooran: 46; U Yadav: 3/36, N Saini: 2/33) by 17 runs
Here is how Twitter reacted to another win of RCB at home:
Love @imVkohli reaction catching @ashwinravi99 Great entertainment @RCBTweets and @IPL !! 👏🏻 Mother cricket always gets you!! #mankad
— Paul Collingwood (@Colly622) April 24, 2019
Virat Kohli has now dropped four catches this season – the second most after Jofra Archer's five. Kohli's catch percentage of 42% is the second worst in the IPL after Archer's 29%. #IPL #RCBvKXIP @RCBTweets @lionsdenkxip
— The CricViz Analyst (@cricvizanalyst) April 24, 2019
So Umesh Yadav redeeming himself tonight but must say Navdeep Saini was superb. And @ABdeVilliers17 what fielding from him. How can he not play the World Cup! 3 for @RCBTweets on the trot.
— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) April 24, 2019
So RCB live to fight another day! #RCBvKXIP #IPL2019#IPL
— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) April 24, 2019
Punjab choked. Should have won this one but the last 3 overs of their batting, just like their bowling was KXIP’s nemesis #RCBvKXIP
— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73) April 24, 2019
Stop the press. #RCB are no longer last in the #IPL2019 points table! #RCBvKXIP
— Saurabh Somani (@saurabh_42) April 24, 2019
Why did AB have to retire from International cricket?!! We all would of loved to have seen him in the WC next month. #CWC19 #IPL2019 #RCBvsKXIP
— Lisa Sthalekar (@sthalekar93) April 24, 2019
A B Delivers. Once again. #RCBvKXIP #IPL
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) April 24, 2019
Mr. 360 @ABdeVilliers17 sending the ball on the rooftop!! Punjab could not finish it off well at all, Parthiv at the top looking really impressive.#RCBvKXIP
— R P Singh रुद्र प्रताप सिंह (@rpsingh) April 24, 2019
Scoreline does not reflect how close this match acutally was. Punjab’s sparkling bid to chase down 202 fizzled out only in the last over. RCB reap reward of spectacular batting by ABD, but bowling and fielding could be better
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) April 24, 2019
