Sharjah: Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) beat Punjab Kings by six runs and sealed a place in the IPL 2021 playoffs at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, here on Sunday.
RCB now have 16 points and became the third team after Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Capitals to have made it to the playoffs.
Riding on Glenn Maxwell's quickfire fifty (57 off 33 balls), RCB posted a total of 164/7 in 20 overs. Apart from Maxwell, Devdutt Padikkal also played a vital knock of 40 runs for RCB.
In reply, openers K L Rahul and Mayank Agarwal came all guns blazing and gave Punjab Kings a solid start. The duo added 91 runs for the opening stand.
Shahbaz Ahmed, in the 12th over of the innings, gave the much-needed breakthrough after he dismissed Rahul (39).
Yuzvendra Chahal (3/29) then picked three wickets including the big scalp of Mayank Agarwal (57) and brought RCB back into the contest. From there on, Kings lost wickets at regular intervals.
In the end, Kings could only score 158/6 in 20 overs and fell short by six runs.