Royal Challengers Bangalore and Punjab Kings will play their second match against each other on April 30 at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. RCB wins the toss and chooses to field first. The team had quite a few changes with Washington out and Shahbaz Ahmed in. PBKS had three changes, the major one being the intake of Harpreet Brar, who went in for a three-wicket haul.
PITCH REPORT
The teams initially knew that the pitch was a slow one due to the back-to-back matches occurring. Owing to this nature, Kohli chose bowling to get the match in his favour with the spinner magic.
FIRST INNINGS
For a change, KL Rahul and Prabhsimran Singh open the match for PBKS. Mayank Agarwal injured himself in the last match against KKR. Daniel Sams, the left-arm faster who joined in RCB since the last match with DC, bowls the first over, giving only 3 runs. Siraj, bowling the second over, gives a wide, which gets appealed for a catch. ABD denies and says it was a wide ball. Rahul inaugurates the first six for the team in this over at the deep mid-wicket fence.
Prabhsimran opens his bat for a four straight drive in the third over to Sams. Jamieson succeeds Siraj and takes down Prabhsimran with his slow pace bouncer. Kohli takes the catch at the covers, leaving Punjab at 19 for the loss of 1. Universe Boss, Gayle, replaces Prabhsimran. As soon as Gayle comes, he joins the boundary club by hitting five 4s while Jamieson bowls the 6th over. It almost seemed like the fans missed Prithvi Shaw from yesterday’s match of DC vs KKR. Jamieson’s over costed RCB a good 20 runs. Punjab ends the powerplay with 49 runs on board at the loss of 1.
After Jamieson, it is Chahal’s turn to get toasted by Gayle. The over spectates 15 runs in total, another expensive one for RCB. Harshal Patel bowls the 8th over because apparently, RCB needed a wicket to slow runs down for Punjab. Gayle and Rahul complete their 50 run partnership in the 8th over, 13 in 13 for Rahul and 36 in 13 for Gayle. If we look for a twister in the match, it was Gayle. He had turned the tables for Punjab and brought them close to the win.
Rahul and Gayle continue their legacy of boundaries and sixes while RCB bowlers bowl in the slot until Sams bowls in the 11th over. Gayle finally leaves for the dugout after giving his catch to AB de Villiers at the short ball. Punjab ends up with 99 runs after Gayle’s dismissal. Pooran follows.
The 12th over looks at Rahul gets his 25th IPL fifty with an extra cover sixer. Jamieson takes Pooran just as he had gotten on the field. With a 3-ball duck caught at the hands of the point fielder, Shahbaz Ahmed, Pooran disappoints Punjab this season. Deepak Hooda takes over the field with Rahul.
With the fall of 3 wickets, Punjab looks at a decrease in their strike rate. Shahbaz bowls the 14th over for a change and doesn’t fail RCB. He takes Deepak Hooda, who tosses the ball to Rajat Patidar at deep square leg fence. A steady fall of wickets for Punjab, and this time it is Chahal who takes Shahrukh Khan and astonishes him. BOWLED! As the commentator says, “Chahal has just found his MoJo again!”. With another 3-ball duck, RCB tries its best to steal the match.
Harpreet Singh joins Rahul on the field. Punjab had lost track over boundaries and sixes since 11.2 overs, and Harshal Patel gives them on a platter to Harpreet with his short balls. With an alternate of Siraj and Harshal in the last three overs, we see how the death over proves costly for RCB. Harshal Patel again gives boundaries to Rahul and Harpreet in the 20th over like he did to Jadeja in the match against CSK. Harpreet and KL Rahul get the 50-run partnership and drag Punjab to 179 with 47 runs in the last 3 overs.
SECOND INNINGS
Kohli and Paddikal open for RCB, with Meredith bowling the first over. A wrong decision on the umpire’s part helps Kohli stay on the field, and he goes on to hit the boundary. Shami bowls a tough over and then, Paddikal gets cleanly bowled by Riley Meredith right after a striking six. Unadjusted to the pace, Paddikal walks back.
Rajat Patidar replaces Paddikal. Risky play almost gets him run out but saved! Shami and Meredith bowl alternatively, giving a few runs here and there. Ravi Bishnoi takes the 6th over to make sure no one does what Gayle did for Punjab.
The powerplay ends at 39 runs with a loss of 1.
Harpreet bowls his first inning this season, beginning with Kohli smashing a six down the ground. While the next few overs go dry as RCB sees the 50, Kohli again goes for a boundary in the 9th over. Bishnoi gives a splendid delivery to Kohli; it goes in the gloves of Prabhsimran. However, the turf bump saves the wicket for RCB.
Harpreet takes Kohli’s wicket in the 12th over anyway, bowled! And yet again, Maxwell comes and goes! Bowled again! A spell by Brar that will keep RCB wondering. A two-wicket haul for Harpreet with the low balls that he bowls. Not just that, he gives a maiden over. ABD goes on the field, and RCB puts all their hopes on him, but he plays just one over. Brar takes Villiers too. ABD dips into reality to give his catch to KL Rahul with expectations of going over the covers. THE THREE WICKET HAUL, ALL JUST IN THREE OVERS BY BRAR!
Shahbaz Ahmed comes in to replace Mr. 360. Patidar does smash a few boundaries to Deepak Hooda at long-on. However, the hazardous shots eventually help Jordan take him down. Pooran takes his catch at long-on. He leaves the team at 91 for a loss of 5. It seemed like a long run for RCB to take a victory home, and they start playing to save up their net run rate for the points table. Shahbaz goes with Bishnoi taking him down with a catch by the young chap whose night it is! Harpreet Brar. Kyle Jamieson comes in at 15.4 overs. But just at that, Daniel Sams gets bowled by Bishnoi. Bishnoi gets another one.
Harshal Patel comes over. To his surprise, he hits a 6 to Shami, and Jamieson also follows with a boundary. Gayle appeals for an LBW, but the ball took a turn to the offside, and wickets were missing. Harshal hits 2 boundaries in the third man and one six in over the bowler’s head down the ground. With these boundaries, RCB improves upon their run rate, hopefully, wish to stay in their positives. After a six on his ball by Jamieson, Meredith gets injured on his knee cap. Shami decides to complete the over, takes Harshal Patel, who had struck 31 runs in just 13 balls. Ravi Bishnoi takes the catch down the ground. Siraj comes in for the last two balls.
Punjab took the win and beat the Royal Challengers by 34 runs. While RCB remains third on the points table, PBKS moves on step ahead and stand fifth. Harpreet Brar gets the title for Player Of The Match. The young fellow was pretty starred by the three wickets he took down: Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers.
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