The Kings XI Punjab beat the Royal Challengers Bangalore by seven wickets in the Indian Premier League in Durban on Friday.
Chasing 169, the Kings XI reached their target with an over to spare. A brilliant 84 off 59 balls by man of the match Ravi Bopara (4×4’s, 5×6’s) laid the foundation for their first victory of the tournament.
Together with Karan Goel, Bopara shared a first wicket partnership of 52 before Goel was run out. Bopara was then joined by Kumar Sangakkara and added another 40 for the second wicket.
Sangakkara was then caught by Pankaj Singh on the boundary off Anil Kumble for 26.
Yuvraj Singh, batting at number four, joined Bopara who then flourished by smacking the ball to all parts of Kingsmead. He brought up his fifty by hitting Praveen Kumar for a huge six over long on. At that stage, he had faced 46 balls and hit three fours and two sixes.
He then added another 31 off 13 balls before being caught by Jesse Ryder off Jacques Kallis with the score on 158, 11 runs short of the target.
It was then left to captain Singh, who dispatched Kallis for a six over his head off the last ball of the 19th over to win the game with six balls to spare.
Earlier, the Royal Challengers Bangalore posted a score of 168 for nine from their 20 overs after winning the toss and electing to bat.
Jacques Kallis top-scored with a personal best of 62 from 46 balls (5×4’s, 2×6’s). He added 61 for the fifth wicket with Ross Taylor to bolster the Royal Challengers to a competitive score.
Taylor ended with 35 from 22 balls (4×4’s, 2×6’s). Jesse Ryder with 32, was third highest run-scorer with 32.
Robin Uthappa (0), Kevin Pietersen (0), Rahul Dravid (10), Virat Kohli (2), Praveen Kumar (13) and Pankaj Singh (0) were the other batsman dismissed for little or no contribution to the score.
Abdulla, with four for 31 was the pick of the bowler’s for the Kings XI while Irfan Pathan chipped in with three for 35 including two wickets in consecutive balls in the final over. – Sapa