Mumbai: Punjab Kings beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by five wickets in their Indian Premier League match here on Sunday.
The Punjab side chased down a huge target of 206 with six balls to spare in a thrilling high-scoring match. Shikhar Dhawan and Bhanuka Rajapaksa scored 43 each up the order, while M Shahrukh Khan and Odean Smith remained not out on 24 and 25 respectively as Punjab reached 208 for 5 in 19 overs.
For RCB, Mohammed Siraj was the most successful bowler with figures of 2/59. Earlier, RCB posted 205 for 2 after being asked to bat. Captain Faf du Plessis top-scored with a 57-ball 88, while Virat Kohli made 41 not out as the duo shared 118 runs for the second wicket. Dinesh Karthik chipped in with a quick fire 32 not out off 14 balls.
For Punjab Kings, Rahul Chahar and Arshdeep Singh took a wicket apiece.
Faf du Plessis, losing captain, said, ‘ I think the batting was really good. The catches towards the end.. Odean Smith 25 off off 8 balls.. I think we probably dropped him on 10. After that we are looking at some tailenders coming in. The cliche of catches win watches. There was a bit of dew out there, tough night for the bowlers, but I thought they were pretty decent with the wet ball. Small margins, but they chased it down really well. They had a really good powerplay. The ball skidded on a bit more in the second innings and then we pulled it back beautifully. We did a lot of good things in the middle. But you know what Odean Smith can do to you. So you got to hold on to those chances. Even the other guy, Shahrukh Khan, didn’t really nail it tonight until the last couple of balls. So completely different game if you hold on to those chances. I am tired! That First innings running, ohh (smiles). I am just glad I got away without injuring myself because I spent so much time on my elbows diving. It was tough to start with the bat today. The first four overs the ball was swinging, I was 1 off 10 I guess. Clutching the bat a bit hard but pleasing to get through it.’
Bhanuka Rajapaksa, said, ‘What we thought was that we’d just have a free hit. Shikhar wanted me to be aggressive although I had just come out to the middle. I knew how Hasaranga bowls. It was about knowing him and playing him for the last 4-5 years now. I bought my local knowledge and it worked. This win is a huge confidence booster. We watched this movie called ’14 Peaks’ and we have 14 games. Every game is a batter’s game. The credit should go to the bowlers to restrict them to 200. But in the middle-overs we gave away around 130 runs in the last 8-9 overs. But I am sure the bowlers will come up with better plans in the future.’
Odean Smith, Man of the Match, said, ‘We were stressing on having a good start. We just needed to have that belief. Didn’t go so well with the bowling. I need to work on a few things. Batting was good as I helped my team to win. It was all about execution and I couldn’t and that’s why it went haywire. Punjab hasn’t won the title so far but we need to have the belief. We watched ’14 peaks’, 13 remain for us.’
Mayank Agarwal, said, ‘Two points for us is very important. Good wicket. Very good wicket as both sides scored 200 plus. One or two balls held up but nothing apart from that. Credit to the way we finished. We took the right chances and am glad it came off. I think we gave them 15-20 more. Virat and Faf took the game away from us but credit to our batters to chase this down. We trust our skills. It doesn’t come off, it doesn’t come off but we are not going to panic and make a scene out of it.’