Pinch Hitter Odean Smith left the RCB fans shocked with his spectacular knock of 25 runs off eight balls. Shahrukh Khan (24 off 20 balls) provided Odean Smith with supreme support. At the end of the innings, Khan smashed two boundaries to take PBKS down the line with the last over remaining. Punjab Kings successfully won their first match of the league, chasing a massive total of 205 easily with having five wickets in hand.
At the beginning of the innings, Mayank Agarwal and Shikhar Dhawan provided a brilliant start to PBKS by putting on a partnership of 71 runs in just seven overs. Unfortunately, Mayank departed at a score of 32, bringing Bhanuka Rajapaksa on the crease.
Sri Lanka’s pinch-hitter Rajapaksha seemed to be in fantastic form before throwing away his wicket to Mohammad Siraj. Rajapaksa played a much-needed inning of 43 runs off just 22 balls, including four sixes and two fours. Opener Shikhar Dhawan also scored 43 runs off 29 balls. For Bangalore, Mohammad Siraj was the most expensive yet successful bowler as he took two crucial wickets but gave away 50 runs in his four overs spell. Akash Deep, Wanindu Hasaranga, and Harshal Patel could only get one wicket each.
In the first innings, the top order of RCB batted magnificently. Skipper Faf du Plessis scored 88 runs off 57 deliveries; his innings included seven massive sixes. Anuj Rawat seemed to be in great form before throwing away his wicket by playing a cross-batted shot to Rahul Chahar. Kohli and Karthik also put on innings of 41 and 32 runs. Despite losing the game, top order performing in the first match is an excellent indication for RCB. RCB would look forward to working on their bowling performance in the next game, as all the bowlers were expensive today, causing RCB the match.
