Punjab Beat Challengers at Bangalore
posted on May 3, 2012 @ 10:59AM
IPL 5: Royal Challengers Bangalore's up-and-down run in the fifth edition of the Indian Premier League continued with a four-wicket defeat at home to Kings XI Punjab.
Chasing 159 to win, the visitors won the match with one ball to go. Nitin Saini (50), David Hussey (45) and Mandeep Singh (43) played crucial hands in the chase. This was Punjab’s second successive win and now they lie fourth in the standings with five wins in 10 matches, while Bangalore lost their second successive match to be 6th.
Earlier, Punjab did everything right till the first half of the innings after winning the toss but script changed in the last 10 overs as they conceded 99 runs. Led Praveen Kumar, who bowled a sensational spell of 4-0-8-0, Punjab were brilliant in the first 10 overs as they had restricted the host to 58 for one despite Gayle present there right from the first ball.
Gayle was on 39 when he was dropped by substitute David Miller in the first ball of the 13th over off Parvinder Awana. The Caribbean creamed Awana for two fours and a six in the same over to shift the momentum for his side, Gayle and Virat Kohli (45 off 42) shared a 118-run partnership for the second wicket.Mahmood's strikes in the end helped Punjab restrict Bangalore 159 to a total which was manageable for their batsmen.