King-size victory for Punjab

Indore, Kings XI Punjab dished out a superb all-round performance to thrash Royal Challengers Bangalore by eight wickets here tonight. Even though AB de Villiers, who was playing his first game of the season, hammered an unbeaten 46-ball 89, the Glenn Maxwell-led team cantered home without any trouble.
Despite de Villiers’ scintillating knock, in which he smashed nine sixes and three fours, Bangalore could post only 148/4 after electing to bat. In reply, Punjab got off to fine start, thanks to a 35-ball 62-run stand for the opening wicket between Manan Vohra (34) and Hashim Amla (58). Tymal Mills dismissed Vohra in the sixth over to end the partnership. Next batsman Axar Patel (9), too, didn’t stay for long —Yuzvendra Chahal accounted for him with a googly. His dismissal, however, didn’t affect Punjab’s chase as Amla and skipper Maxwell never took their foot off the accelerator and kept dealing in boundaries. The duo knocked off the target in just 14.3 overs. Amla’s unbeaten 38-ball 58 was studded with four boundaries and three sixes, while Maxwell smashed three boundaries and four sixes in his breezy knock.
For Punjab, Varun Aaron (2/21) snapped up two wickets, while Sandeep Sharma (1/26) and Axar Patel (1/12) picked one wicket each.
Earlier, RCB lost three quick wickets but a 46-run stand between Mandeep Singh and de Villiers for the fourth wicket stabilised the innings. De Villiers and Mandeep kept dealing in ones and twos to keep the scoreboard ticking before Aaron dismissed the Jalandhar batsman in the 14th over with wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha taking a brilliant catch. In the 16th over, de Villiers smashed Aaron over mid-off for his second six of the innings. The South African then smashed Marcus Stoinis over deep midwicket twice in the next over to bring up his fifty. In the penultimate over bowled by Sandeep, de Villiers smashed a four and two successive sixes to amass 19 runs. In the final over, he smashed two sixes off the last two balls to take RCB closer to the 150-mark.
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Runs Balls 4s 6s
S Watson b Patel 1 4 0 0
V Vinod c Maxwell b Sandeep 7 12 1 0
AB de Villiers not out 89 46 3 9
K Jadhav lbw b Aaron 1 4 0 0
Mandeep c Saha b Aaron 28 34 1 1
S Binny not out 18 20 1 1
Extras: (lb 1, w 3) 4
Total: (4 wickets; 20 overs) 148
FOW: 1-2 2-18 3-22 4-68
Bowling O M R W
A Patel 4 0 12 1
Sandeep Sharma 4 0 26 1
M Sharma 4 0 47 0
V Aaron 4 0 21 2
T Natarajan 1 0 13 0
M Stoinis 3 0 28 0
Kings XI Punjab
Runs Balls 4s 6s
M Vohra lbw b Mills 34 21 4 1
H Amla not out 58 38 4 3
A Patel b Chahal 9 6 0 1
G Maxwell not out 43 22 3 4
Extras: (lb 4, w 2) 6
Total: (2 wickets; 14.3 overs) 150
FOW: 1-62, 2-78
Bowling O M R W
B Stanlake 4 0 41 0
I Abdulla 2 0 19 0
S Watson 2 0 28 0
T Mills 2 0 22 1
Y Chahal 3.3 0 29 1
P Negi 1 0 7 0
Man of the Match: Axar Patel