Match no. 31 of indian premier league 2020 took place on at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on 15.10.2020. The two teams were The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and The Kings XI Punjab (KXIP). Royal Challengers Bangalore won the toss and decided to bat first.
In this match, RCB made 3 changes Chris Gayle, Murugan Ashwin, and Deepak Hooda came in for Mandeep Singh, Prabhsimran Singh, and Mujeeb-ur-Rehman. Many RCB and IPL fans would have been happy to see one man in the starting 11 the big man Chris Gayle who was playing his first game in Dream11 IPL 2020 while the Kings XI Punjab played with an unchanged side
RCB INNINGS
RCB began their batting with Aaron Finch and Devdutt Padikkal. Glenn Maxwell opened the bowling for Kings XII Punjab. RCB started well scoring 18 runs off the first two overs. The first breakthrough for KXIP came in the first ball of the fifth over which was bowled by Arshdeep Singh. Padikkal went for the big shot but was caught by Nicolas Pooran at cover. In the seventh over, RCB lost their second opener for the night. On the third ball of his first over, Murugan Ashwin bowled a beautiful delivery to which Aaron Finch had no answer and the ball went to hit the stumps. At the end of the seventh over, RCB were 63/2.
In the place of the two opening batsmen, RCB sent out Virat Kohli and Washington Sundar. After losing their opening two batsmen in quick succession it was vital that these two stitched a good partnership.
In the 11th over, Murugan Ashwin got his second wicket for the night. Washington Sundar who was on 13 went for the slog sweep but didn't connect well with the ball and Chris Jordan ended up taking a good catch. Shivam Dubey joined Kohli at the crease. RCB crossed the 100 run mark at the end of the 13th over. The next 2 overs went for 25 runs and RCB were 122/3 at the end of the 15th over. Shivam Dubey was currently batting on 21 while Kohli was on 40 close to his half-century.
In the last ball of the 16th over, Chris Jordan took the wicket of Shivam Dubey who was caught behind by KL Rahul for 16 runs. In place of him, came in AB de Villiers. Now with De Villiers and Kohli at the crease, RCB could change gears and end the last few overs on a high but in the 17th over, bowled by Mohammad Shami, while trying to do exactly that, De Villiers who was on 2 went for the big shot but didn't hit it well enough and Randeep Hooda took a simple catch at extra cover.
Next over, Shami took another one. Kohli, who was on 48 just short of a half-century was caught behind by KL Rahul. Now at this stage, RCB were 137/6. Chris Morris came in and played a handy innings of 25 of just 8 balls and helped RCB reach a competitive score of 171/6.
RCB ended their innings with 171 on board for the loss of 6 wickets.
Kings XII Punjab innings
KXIP started their chase with KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal. In contrast to the RCB openers, they started rather slowly as they managed only 5 of their first 2 overs. RCB had 18 runs on board by this time but they managed to pick up the pace as after the 4th over, Kings XI Punjab were 33/0. These two batsmen were certainly enjoying themselves in the middle and at the end of the powerplay, they took their teams' score to 56/0.
RCB got their first wicket of the night in the 8th over after Yuzvendra Chahal clean bowled Mayank Agarwal. Kings XI Punjab were 78/1 and now required 94 runs from 72 balls which was easily achievable. Chris Gayle came to the middle to partner KL Rahul. This is the moment all IPL fans were waiting for. At the end of the 12th over Kings XI Punjab crossed the 100 run mark.
In the 14th over, KL Rahul reached his half-century in 37 balls. Chris Gayle played decent innings considering it was his first game of the season. He too reached his half-century in the 17th over. After that Kings XI Punjab required just 11 runs from 18 balls and reached the target of 171 rather easily.
RESULT
Kings XI Punjab won the game by 7 runs.
CONCLUSION
I was happy to see Chris Gayle score a half-century. He has been a huge entertainer in the IPL ever since its inception. RCB could have made a better score but they lost important wickets in quick succession.
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