Sharjah: Skipper KL Rahul (61 not out off 49) and Chris Gayle (53 off 45) hit brilliant half-centuries as Kings XI Punjab beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 8 wickets, registering their second win of the IPL 2020, at Sharjah Cricket Stadium, here on Thursday.
Royal Challengers Bangalore, batting first scored 171/6 in their 20 overs. Virat Kohli scored 48 off 39 balls to emerge as the top-scorer, while Chris Morris smashed a blazing 25 towards the end for RCB.
In reply, KXIP scored the 177/2 in 20 overs, winning the match by eight wickets. With this win, the Punjab-based franchise ended their 5-match losing streak in the cash-rich tournament.
Chasing a challenging total for victory, openers KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal came out all guns blazing. The duo dealt in boundaries and took RCB to 56-0 in the powerplay.
Yuzvendra Chahal got rid of Mayank Agarwal (45) to break Punjab's 79-run opening stand in Sharjah. Chris Gayle joined skipper KL Rahul in the middle after Mayank's wicket.
Gayle, who was playing his first match of the IPL 2020, took his time to settle in. On the other hand, KXIP skipper Rahul looked in great touch and hit his 4th fifty in IPL 2020 off 37 deliveries.
KL Rahul and Chris Gayle were taking KXIP towards an easy win. But it became a thriller in the last over courtesy Yuzvendra Chahal's brilliance.
With 2 runs needed from the last over, Chahal bowled 2 dot ball to start with. Chris gayle ran a single on the 3rd one, only for Rahul to play a dot on the 4th delivery.
In the 5th delivery, KL Rahul tried to steal a single but Gayle was run-out in the process. Nicholas Pooran was the new man on strike but he made sure to seal the deal with a six.Chahal(1/35) picked up the only wicket for RCB. (UNI)
