Royal Challengers Bangalore suffered their 6th defeat in this season after they were beaten in a comprehensive manner by Punjab Kings at the CCI stadium, Brabourne. They are now the only team in the top four with a negative net run rate even after having 7 wins already. Faf Du Plessis won the toss and elected to bowl first. But some of their prime bowlers had a really off day.
PBKS openers Jonny Bairstow and Shikhar Dhawan gave them a flying start. The English opener smashed a 29 ball 66 to take his side into the front foot right from the start. Liam Livingstone also joined the party after Bairstow departed. PBKS posted a massive total of 209 on the board in this game which they simply had to win. RCB started well in their chase but Kohli departed early again. Wickets fell at regular intervals as they fell short by 54 runs. RCB skipper Faf Du Plessis acknowledged the fact that they lost too many wickets going to chase the score which he thought was par.
“It was a good score, obviously Jonny the way he started put our bowlers under real pressure. I thought we pulled it back a bit. 200 was about par on that wicket, was a brilliant wicket. When you are chasing scores like that, you can not afford to lose wickets in clusters and unfortunately, that is what happened to us.” – Faf said at the post-match conference.
“Not a great outing for us tonight. Will take a day off and then see how we can switch on for a game that’s a must-win one for us. One more net session isn’t going to make you a better player, it is about making yourselves stronger in the mind. If we play to our potential, we are a very strong side. Unfortunately, we didn’t do that tonight.”
Let’s Look at the talking points from the PBKS Vs RCB game-
Bairstow is back in form at the right time
The 32-year-old did not have the best of starts to his PBKS days as a middle-order batter. After getting the chance of opening the batting, Bairstow is playing like a man in the prime form again. He smashed the ball right from the start in his knock of 66 runs off just 29 balls which included 7 sixes.
Livingstone took PBKS’s total to over 200
After RCB got rid of Bairstow, another Englishman continued the show. It was a perfect platform set for him and he capitalized it to full effect. Liam scored a brilliant 70 off 42 deliveries and dominated almost all RCB bowlers. Right at the death, he gave his wicket away to Harshal Patel, trying to play a cheeky shot over the wicketkeeper which did not come off.
Kohli’s bizarre run of form continues in PBKS Vs RCB
The charismatic star is going through the worst run of his career. Chasing a total of 210, RCB needed something special from Kohli. He started brightly and played some classy shots for his 14-ball 20 runs, but unfortunately got out right after that.
Rabada showed why he’s special
The South African pacer delivered yet another economical match-winning spell on a batting-friendly pitch where almost all bowlers had an off day. Rabada sent back Virat Kohli in the 4th over to send RCB into backfoot. After that, he also picked up two more to finish the spell with the figures of 3/21.
