In a must-win encounter at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Royal Challengers Bengaluru struck early in Punjab Kings’ reduced 14-over chase, dismissing both openers within the first four overs. The rain forced the match to be shortened, but it did little to deter the RCB pacers from making an early impact.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the first to strike, removing Prabhsimran Singh for 13 off 9 balls. The PBKS opener mistimed a short-of-length delivery and lobbed it straight to Tim David at mid-off, who held on to a sharp catch despite a brief moment of confusion with Rajat Patidar. Notably, Prabhsimran has struggled against Bhuvneshwar in T20s, averaging just 11.5 across seven innings, with four dismissals now.
Soon after, Josh Hazlewood joined the action, dismissing the promising Priyansh Arya for 16 off 11 balls. Hazlewood banged one in short and Arya tried to muscle it over mid-off, only to top-edge it into the safe hands of Tim David again. Arya had started brightly with a six and a four but couldn’t convert his start.
With both openers gone at 32/2 in 3.4 overs, Shreyas Iyer walked in next. Interestingly, he has a poor IPL record against Hazlewood, scoring just 3 runs off 12 balls with two dismissals before today. The challenge for PBKS is now steep, needing 64 more runs in 62 balls, albeit with plenty of batting to come.
RCB has clawed their way back into the contest after a low total of 95/9, with the pressure now mounting on the PBKS middle order in this shortened game.
