Captain Shikhar Dhawan’s pragmatism provided the foundation on which Punjab Kings built their 176 for six as Royal Challengers Bangalore’s bowlers found their way on a pitch at the Chinnaswamy Stadium that provided them with a springboard on Monday. Dhawan (45, 37b), Jitesh Sharma (27, 20b) and Prabhsimran Singh (25, 17b) were the key contributors for the Kings after Royal Challengers opted to bowl first on a track with some green. For RCB, Mohammed Siraj and Glenn Maxwell took wickets each. The Kings got off to a shaky start with Jonny Bairstow leaving early as his forays on these shores, dating back to last year’s World Cup, have now become more arid than the Indian Summer. In the latter case, pacer Siraj’s poorly executed pull, close to the body, was covered by Virat Kohli.
But from 17 for one, the visitors found some runs through Dhawan and Prabhsimran who tackled the pitch and the RCB bowlers with aplomb, milking 55 runs from 38 balls.
Dhawan wasn’t exactly smooth during his stay, but showed enough grit to capitalize on the loose deliveries, such as a length ball on the off-stump of left-arm spinner Mayank Dagar, which he pulled long-on for a six.
Bro didn’t even hesitate
As a reminder, he almost injured his finger on a similar attempt in the previous game#Playfat #RCB #IPL2024 #RCBvPBKS
— Royal Challengers Bengaluru (@RCBTweets) March 25, 2024
In fact, the RCB bowlers, especially the impressive left-arm seamer Yash Dayal (1/23), did well to tie him down with deliveries that shot towards him at just under good length.
Prabhsimran also gave vent to his aggressive instincts at times, and the most telling piece was his flicked six off Cameron Green that sailed for a maximum of 90 yards over mid-wicket.
But just as the alliance was blossoming, Prabhsimran tried to pull Maxwell towards him but a weak top edge was easily caught by stump Anuj Rawat.
Rawat soon doubled the tally of his catches when he latched onto a wild heave outside Liam Livingstone’s off-stump off Alzarri Joseph in the final ball of the 12th over.
But the Punjab side suffered a bigger blow when Dhawan got the next ball.
The left-hander’s attempt to hoist Maxwell out of the ground ended long in Kohli’s hands as the Kings slipped to 98 for four in 12.1 overs.
It wasn’t an ideal situation for Kings as they needed a few more runs on the board to provide the home side with a meaningful challenge.
They found those of Jitesh, who hammered Dagar for two sixes in a row, and Sam Curran, who added 52 runs for the fifth wicket off 34 balls to push the PBKS past the 150-run mark, which was swollen by a couple of solid hits from Shashank Singh, who put Joseph on the grid for 20 runs in the final.
But they would have liked to see a heavier-looking scoreboard to follow up their second straight win.
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