Kings XI Punjab too strong for Bangalore Royal Challengers

In Match 25 of the DLF Indian Premier League (IPL), the Kings XI Punjab defeated hosts Bangalore Royal Challengers by 6 wickets to climb up to the second spot on the IPL points table.

Yuvraj Singh, skipper of the Punjab side, won the toss and decided to put the opposition in to bat. From the word go, the Bangalore Royal Challengers had their backs against the wall as in the first over itself, S Sreesanth claimed Wasim Jaffer and Cameron White off two successive deliveries.

Jacques Kallis may have stopped Sreesanth from getting a hat-trick but was run out a few balls later without opening his account.

It was then left to Bangalore captain Rahul Dravid and ICC Under-19 World Cup winning captain Virat Kohli to seam the Bangalore innings together and that’s exactly what they did with a 54-run partnership. But just when the duo were rescuing the Royal Challengers out of their plight, Irfan Pathan accounted for the wicket of Kohli.

After the fall of Kohli’s wicket, it was only a matter of keeping the in-form Dravid company at the crease. But this seemed too big a task for the Bangalore batsmen and the middle order and tail-enders fell registering single-digit scores.

Dravid (66) and Kohli (34) were the only Bangalore batsmen who showed determination and character against the Mohali bowlers who bowled to perfection.

Piyush Chawla continued his good run in the tournament by picking up 3 wickets for 25 runs. Sreesanth bowled a fantastic opening spell and ended up with figures of 2-16. Both bowlers bowled four overs each.

Kings XI Punjab too started their innings conceding an early wicket in the form of James Hopes in the second over. But Shaun Marsh and Ramnaresh Sarwan steadied the ship scoring at a brisk rate to take their side to 65 in the seventh over when Sarwan departed.

The captain of the Mohali-based franchise Yuvraj Singh scored one run before losing his wicket. Marsh joined his captain in the pavilion a few overs later. But by then they needed a run a ball with 6 wickets in hand.

Mahela Jayawardena and Irfan Pathan were only too pleased to complete the formality and seal another victory for their side with 10 balls to spare. Zaheer Khan and Praveen Kumar picked up 2 wickets each for the hosts.

Sreesanth was awarded Player of the Match for his bowling spell of 2-16.

The next match of the IPL will be played between the Chennai Super Kings and the Deccan Chargers at the MA Chidambaram Stadium at Chennai.