KXIP remain unbeaten after stroll past RCB

Cricket365
April 29, 2014

The Kings XI Punjab maintained their unbeaten run in the UAE leg of the Indian Premier League, beating the Royal Challengers Bangalore by five wickets in Dubai on Monday night.

Bangalore's top order, much admired, was well below par as three of the top five failed to reach double figures, and only Chris Gayle made 20. They ended with a score of 124 for eight, which KXIP reached with seven balls to spare.

Punjab won the toss and elected to bowl, denying Virat Kohli his beloved chase tactic. Gayle returned from injury for the first time in the tournament and made 20 runs off seven balls, but was out in the second over.

Sandeep Sharma was superb early on, and after removing Gayle went on to claim Kohli and Parthiv Patel in his next over. Added to Yogesh Takawale's wicket by Mitchell Johnson, RCB were four down for just 26.

Rishi Dhawan also took two wickets, those of AB de Villiers, who'd made 17, and Yuvraj Singh. The India veteran top scored with 35 before falling with the score on 97 for seven. Varun Aaron and Albie Morkel pushed the score to 124.

The chase was not as simple as the Kings would have liked, as they lost Cheteshwar Pujara, Wriddhiman Saha and Glenn Maxwell cheaply and sat on 40 for three. But Virender Sehwag and David Miller steadied the knock and took the score to 85.

Both were out within three runs of each other, leaving the rest of the chase to Rishi Dhawan and George Bailey, who made 23 and 16 respectively. The win saw KXIP continue to top the table, while Bangalore sat fifth.