Punjab Kings skipper K L Rahul seems to love playing against Royal Challengers Bangalore. He has the knack of scoring big when playing against his former team.
Put in to bat, his unbeaten 91 off 57 balls, along with Chris Gayle's 46 runs off 24 balls lifted Punjab to a strong 179-5.
Having started cautiously, Rahul joined in the mayhem after Gayle departed following a blazing 24-ball knock.
He received good support towards the end from Harpreet Brar who scored 25 not out off 17 balls, which included a four and two sixes.
Wickets continued to tumble as Punjab lost four for 19 runs. At the end of the 18th over the score read 132 for 5. But Rahul and Harpreet were undeterred.
In the 18th over Brar hammered Harshal Patel for a six and four as he leaked 18 runs from the over.
Mohammed Siraj gave away just seven runs in the next, but Rahul and Brar took Harshal for 22 in the final over. <?p>
The sixth-wicket partnership between Rahul and Harpreet proved vital as they added 61 runs for the 6th wicket in the final 5.2 overs.
Harshal, who took five wickets in his first IPL 2021 game, conceded 40 runs off his last two overs.
Chasing 180, RCB were under pressure right from the start. Virat Kohli (35) and Rajat Patidar (31) tried their best to keep the team in the contest, but excellent bowling by Brar (3/19) and Ravi Bishnoi (2/17) sealed a comfortable victory with RCB restricted to 145/8.
Rahul now has 284 runs, and is unbeaten against RCB in his last three innings. He has batted into the 20th over in all three matches. He is also the Orange cap holder with 331 runs this season.
It was Punjab's third win in seven matches. They moved up to fifth in the points table.
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