IPL 2017: Kings XI Punjab vs Royal Challengers Bangalore, Player Ratings
Despite AB de Villiers' heroics in the first innings, Royal Challengers Bangalore fell short against Kings XI Punjab, losing out by a massive eight wickets against the home side.
KXIP have now won two games in a row and it was a statement of intent from Glenn Maxwell's boys as they repeated their good bowling performance against RCB to restrict them to a modest total of 148.
De Villiers replaced Chris Gayle in the starting lineup and smashed 89 off 46 balls to take his side to a defendable score after a sluggish start. Punjab then batted brilliantly as the opening partnership of Manan Vohra and Hashim Amla built the foundation for a successful run chase.
Extra Cover: IPL 2017: Kings XI Punjab vs Royal Challengers Bangalore, 5 Talking Points
Maxwell played the match winner's role as he smashed a quickfire 43 off 22 balls to help Punjab to a comfortable victory.
Here are the player ratings from KXIP’s win over RCB at the Holkar Stadium in Indore:
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Shane Watson - 3
The Australian all-rounder and RCB captain failed with both the ball and bat. Watson lost his wicket in the first over itself which resulted in a slow start from his team. It was a quick delivery by Axar Patel and was too close for Watson to attempt a cut as he got an inside edge onto his stumps. During the run chase, he brought himself on at the wrong time and went for 28 runs in two overs which proved costly at the end.
Vishnu Vinod - 4
The youngster just couldn't get going as he struggled from the word go and looked extremely vulnerable against the duo of Sandeep Sharma and Mohit Sharma. He finally holed out against Sandeep to a short ball as he attempted an unnecessary slog to hand Maxwell an easy catch at long on.
AB de Villiers - 9
He arrived at a difficult situation for RCB and took his time to get used to the pace of the pitch. Wickets kept tumbling at the other end but de Villiers held fort and began the destruction in the last five overs.
His innings was the definition of a one-man show as he struck three fours and nine massive sixes. His six over cover against Mohit Sharma was the highlight of the match.
Kedar Jadhav - 3
Jadhav became another victim of a wretched umpiring decision as he was wrongly given leg before wicket off a rising delivery from Varun Aaron. After a sensational knock against the Daredevils, it must have been bad for Jadhav's confidence to be dismissed for just 1 as he was the player on whom Bangalore was depending on to play a long innings with de Villiers.
Mandeep Singh - 6
He finally got some runs on the board but they came at a really slow pace which hampered RCB’s scoring rate. Though he played some exquisite shots which included a beauty of a six off the bowling of Mohit Sharma which hit the roof, he was dismissed by a blinder of a catch from Wriddhiman Saha.
Stuart Binny - 5
Just like Mandeep, he took far too many balls to adjust to the pace of the game. He gave decent company to de Villiers in the middle but an innings of 18 runs from 20 balls just isn't good enough during the business end of the innings.
Pawan Negi - 5
The match winner for Bangalore in the last game, Negi had little to do in this game as he bowled just one over and conceded just seven runs. Watson should have given him at least one more over to try something different in order to stop the onslaught from Amla and company.
Iqbal Abdullah - 5
He was brought on to bowl the second over of the innings and conceded just eight runs to start with. Abdullah bowled just one over after that but conceded 11. The decision might have been taken to not expose a left-arm spinner to Glenn Maxwell.
Billy Stanlake - 6
The six feet seven-inch Australian talent was compared to Morne Morkel by AB de Villiers during the game but Stanlake failed to provide a breakthrough early on to add pressure on Punjab's batsman in the power play. He bowled straight and fast but was later taken to the cleaners in his last two overs by Hashim Amla.
Tymal Mills - 7
After proving to be effective against Delhi, Mills was a little on the expensive side against Punjab. He gave his side a glimmer of hope when he dismissed Manan Vohra. The captain should have brought him on earlier and given him a longer spell when Bangalore needed wickets badly.
Yuzvendra Chahal - 7
The leggie didn't do anything wrong and took the wicket of Axar Patel with a googly as the left-hander attempted a huge slog. He should also have been brought on earlier when Vohra and Amla were starting to score freely against the pacers.