IPL 2018: Kings XI Punjab trounced by Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore

INDORE: Umesh Yadav has been one of the positives for Royal Challengers Bangalore in their topsy-turvy campaign. The pacer has bowled some brilliant opening spells this season. In his last match against Kings XI Punjab in Bengaluru, Umesh picked up three wickets in an over and returned with figures of 4-0-23-3.
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Man-of-the-Match Umesh was again in the thick of action on Monday as RCB faced KXIP in the return encounter.He ended up with similar figures of 4-0-23-3, including the wickets of KL Rahul and Chris Gayle in an over, at a jam-packed Holkar Stadium as KXIP dramatically collapsed from 41/1 to 61/5 before getting bowled out for 87 after being put in to bat.
It was the second-lowest team total this season after Mumbai Indians’ 87 against Sunrisers Hyderabad. It was a good pitch to bat on but Kings XI never got going after Umesh’s strikes. Umesh removed the prolific duo of Rahul and Gayle in the space of four balls to push KXIP on the backfoot.
Royal Challengers, when they came out to bat, knew they had a great opportunity to better their run rate, and openers Kohli and Parthiv Patel did not disappoint. Parthiv started with a backfoot drive off Ashwin before hitting two glorious boundaries off Andrew Tye. Kohli took Ankit Rajpoot to the cleaners, flicking him for a six and hitting two boundaries.
RCB raced to 36 in three overs, kept getting boundaries thereafter and eventually knocked down the target in just 8.1 overs to post an easy 10-wicket victory.
The KXIP middle order had an opportunity to make their presence felt in this game but Karun Nair and Mayank Agrawal failed yet again, while Marcus Stoinis couldn’t justify his promotion. Half the KXIP side was back in the hut by 9 overs.
Umesh bowled an excellent first over and induced an edge off Gayle’s broad bat but Patel, diving to his left couldn’t hold on. Like Andre Russell on Saturday, Umesh bowled at Gayle’s rib cage and reaped the rewards. When Rahul pulled Umesh for his third six, Kohli continued to encourage the bowler to bowl a short one. The move paid off. Bangalore had broken KXIP’s batting backbone.
Finch and Axar batted for a while but the former’s dismissal triggered a big collapse as the next four wickets went for only 10 runs, among them three run outs.