Dubai: Riding on a blistering century by skipper K L Rahul, Kings XI Punjab thrashed Royal Challengers Bangalore by 97 runs in an IPL encounter at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Thursday.
Rahul's unbeaten 132 off 69 balls helped KXIP post a mammoth 206/3 in 20 overs. In reply, RCB were bowled out for 109 in 17 overs.
RCB needed big contributions from their star-studded top order to stand a chance in the mammoth chase. But what ensued was far from it, as RCB were reduced to 57/5 inside nine overs with the young Devdutt Padikkal (1), Aaron Finch (20), Josh Philippe (0), captain Virat Kohli (1) and AB de Villiers (28) all back in the hut.
Mohammed Shami put the early breaks on the RCB innings, giving away just 14 runs in the three overs he bowled and taking the wicket of Philippe. Sheldon Cottrell dismissed Padikkal in the very first over of the innings before claiming the all-important wicket of Kohli in the third.
Finch and de Villiers then put up 49 runs for the fourth wicket, which was the only meaningful partnership that RCB managed to put up on the night. Ravi Bishnoi ended the stand with the wicket of Finch in the eighth over. De Villiers fell in the ninth over to Murugan Ashwin to end any slender chances of RCB putting up a challenge. Bishnoi and Ashwin ended the game with three wickets each
Earlier, Rahul, who was dropped in the 17th and then again in the 18th over by Kohli, scored an unbeaten 132 off 69 balls that was laced with 14 boundaries and seven sixes.
With his spectacular knock, he surpassed Rishabh Pant to post the highest individual score by an Indian in IPL history.
Playing his 60th innings, Rahul also became the fastest Indian to reach the 2,000 IPL runs.
The stylish batsman clipped away a full length delivery to fine leg for four to break Sachin Tendulkar's record, who reached the milestone in 63 matches.
Opening the batting with Rahul, Mayank Agarwal (26) looked dangerous and shared a 57-run stand with his captain. However, with the introduction of spin into the attack in the seventh over, Yuzvendra Chahal (1/25) struck with the last ball, cleaning up Agarwal (26) with a delightful googly.
Nicholas Pooran (17) and Glenn Maxwell (5) once again failed to make an impact as Shivam Dube (2/33) accounted for the duo. Karun Nair pitched in with an unbeaten eight-ball 15.
The pace troika of Umesh Yadav (0/35), Dale Steyn (0/57) and Navdeep Saini (0/37) had a torrid time as Rahul was on fire in his second game as captain.
All players wore black armbands to honour Australian cricketer-turned-commentator Dean Jones, who died in Mumbai due to a cardiac arrest on Thursday.
