The Punjab Kings notched up a clinical all round performance to beat the season favourites Royal Challengers Bangalore by 34 runs at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Thursday.
Chasing a target of 180, RCB got off to a disappointing start as they lost Devdutt Padikkal cheaply in the third over. Virat was then joined by Rajat Patidar as the duo tried to build the chase for RCB with their steady innings. The RCB skipper despite staying at the crease for over 10 overs failed to convert his start into a match defining knock as he fell prey to debutant and the star of the night Harpreet Brar, scoring just 35 off 34.
It was a dream debut for the youngster as the left arm orthodox spinner further went on to wreck RCB's chances in the game getting rid of the in form Glenn Maxwell for a duck and later the South African great AB de Villiers to keep PBKS in the driver's seat.
The Virat led side fell from 62-1 to 92-7 before Harshal Patel and Kyle Jamieson's cameos narrowed the victory margin for the Kings. Besides Brar, other PBKS bowlers too put up impressive shows as Ravi Bishnoi, Chris Jordan and Mohammed Shami restricted RCB to 145/8 in 20 overs to seal the game with two points.
Earlier, Virat had won the toss and asked PBKS to bat first. The Kings started the proceedings with a new opening pair as KL Rahul walked in with Prabhsimran Singh after Mayank Agarwal had to miss out due to an injury. Singh failed to make his mark scoring just a run a ball, however, the PBKS still had a reason to rejoice as their power house Chris Gayle finally got his mojo back. The explosive batsman hit Kyle Jamieson for 5 fours in an over and went on to score a crucial 46 off 24.
After Gayle's departure, Rahul continued to build the PBKS' innings from one end. However, three consecutive wickets of Nicholas Pooran, Deepak Hooda and Shahrukh Khan shifted the momentum on RCB's side.
Rahul, with his brilliant 91 runs off 57 balls yet again led from the front, staying in the middle till the very end and with decent support from Brar's unbeaten 25 off 17 balls took PBKS to a highly competitive score of 179-5 in 20 overs.
