KL Rahul, Brar demolish RCB

After a heavy defeat to the Kolkata Knight Riders in their previous encounter, the Punjab Kings are back on track with a statement victory against the Royal Challengers Bangalore. This was the most complete performance from Punjab so far this season as they outplayed Virat Kohli’s side in all three departments. KL Rahul anchored the innings perfectly and scored a wonderful 91 off 57 balls to regain the orange cap but the star of the show for the Kings was all-rounder Harpreet Brar. In only his 4th game in the IPL, Brar scored a crucial cameo at the death and also took the three prized wickets of Kohli, Maxwell and De Villiers to give Punjab their third victory of the season.

Punjab were without Mayank Agarwal due to injury for this game but his loss was mitigated by a blistering start from Chris Gayle in the powerplay. The Universe Boss hit five boundaries off the final over of the Powerplay from Kyle Jamieson to provide the momentum to the innings with Punjab scoring 90 runs in the first 10 overs.

Despite this fast start, Punjab lost their way in the middle overs and lost four wickets for only 19 runs. Following this collapse, KL Rahul had to regroup alongside Harpreet Brar and the Kings went for nearly 7 overs without scoring a boundary. Rahul eventually exploded at the death and scored 47 runs from the final three overs to push Punjab to a competitive total of 179.

RCB never looked comfortable in their run chase and the game turned on its head after Harpreet Brar was introduced into the attack. Brar was hit for a six off the first ball of his spell and was put under the pump by Kohli but came back incredibly well following this initial setback. Brar dismissed Kohli with a slider off the first ball of his third over before following it up with a beautiful delivery that drifted, turned and hit the top of Glenn Maxwell’s off-stump. The Punjab all-rounder then sealed the victory a few balls later with the key wicket of AB de Villiers and conceded just two runs off his final two overs which included a double-wicket maiden.

Punjab have now won two of their last three games and are up to fifth in the table with this victory. Moreover, what will please Anil Kumble and KL Rahul more than the win is the performance from the team and the emergence of Brar and Riley Meredith which provides the perfect balance to Punjab with both bat and ball.