KL Rahul's 132* sets up Kings XI Punjab's crushing defeat of Royal Challengers Bangalore
Kings XI's twin legspinners Ravi Bishnoi and M Ashwin exploited a right-hander heavy Royal Challengers line-up to take three wickets apiece
Kings XI's twin legspinners Ravi Bishnoi and M Ashwin exploited a right-hander heavy Royal Challengers line-up to take three wickets apiece
Scorer: Chandan Duorah | Commentator: Varun Shetty
9:52pm And that closes our coverage at the ball-by-ball commentary. Thanks for joining us and watch out for all the post-game analysis and quotes coming your way. See you!
KL Rahul: It's as complete a team performance as it can get, so yeah, happy. I've actually been not so confident. Had a chat with Maxi yesterday and said I wasn't feeling completely in control of my batting. Was a little nervous but I knew if I faced a few balls, it would settled down. Sometimes as a captain you're short on time, but I still try and maintain the same routine. Till the toss I still want to think as a player, not a captain. [The bowling] we had a few different plans going into this game and we knew we had to get wickets up front, that also meant we needed to get a big score. As complete a performance as it can get. [Bishnoi] has a lot of heart. He has a lot of fight in him. Every time I throw the ball to him, he wants to get in the fight. He was a little nervous bowling to Finch and AB, but showed a lot of heart.
KL Rahul is the Man of the Match.
Virat Kohli: I think we were pretty good in the middle phase with the ball. I have to stand in front and take the brunt of it. Cost about 30-40 runs. If we'd restricted them at 180 we wouldn't have felt pressure to go from ball one. There are days when you have these kind of things happen. Just have to accept them. We've had a good game, we've had a bad game. Time to move on. We need to learn to plug those little mistakes. We did pretty well, especially closing in on the second time out and just after that. But as I said, should have led from the front with those two chances. With the bat as well, we started well, but we should have put pressure straight away. [Philippe at 3] He's batted at the top of the order for WA and done well at the big bash as well. Early days, we tried to see if we can maximise his ability. We just thought chasing a big total, we'll give outselves a bit of depth in the middle overs. Just didn't come off. One of the things you try and couldn't execute.
Nikhil Chawla: "@krish, I still want to be in Kohli's shoes. You play a game to win not to minimize the damage."
Juzer: "Rahul scoring a full 102 runs more than the next highest batsmen. No prizes for guessing today's Man of the Match"
NIKHIL: "Obligatory 'KL Rahul won by 23 runs' comment"
Krish: "Shows the difference in styles and approach between Dhoni and Kohli... CSK didn't throw the sink on their huge chase and got closer and a better NRR where as RCB went after theirs and lost by a huge margin. "
SANTHOSH L N: "The intensity of the players define the game. We have seen CSK, MI players have that intensity and that is why they are winning the games or losing by very close margin. RCB players over the years never got that rhythm or intensity or willing to win kind of attitude. They are happy or very happy if they lose by close margin and they go over the sky if they win. But still a fan of RCB for no reason and expect them to win every match :("
9:30pm A 97-run win for Kings XI Punjab to follow the heartbreak the other night. What a comeback. They made the tweaks tonight - two legspinners, an extra batsman - to try and ensure the game doesn't get too close again. For RCB, the frailties of last match were only amplified tonight. And that had mostly to do with their bowling. Their catching let them down big time as well, and once the target was past 200, the pressure of two early wickets had already dismantled them. Failure for all their big names tonight.
YS Chahal lbw b Ashwin 1 (3b 0x4 0x6) SR: 33.33
NA Saini b Ashwin 6 (7b 1x4 0x6) SR: 85.71
Veteran commentator says he hadn't blamed Sharma, and was referring to a video put out during lockdown
A big score for Rahul and a big win for the Kings XI Punjab. Twitter was full of praise for both
He finished with an unbeaten 132 off 69 balls - the highest score by an Indian in the IPL and fourth-highest overall
What worked well for Kings XI Punjab, and where Royal Challengers Bangalore erred
According to ESPNcricinfo's Luck Index, Virat Kohli's second drop of KL Rahul cost Royal Challengers 26 runs