IPL 2019: Match 28, KXIP vs RCB - Who Said What

The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) got their first points on the board in Mohali by beating the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) by eight wickets. It was a not so clinical performance from them but they did enough to beat the home side on the day. Interestingly, the KXIP earlier posted an under-par total despite Chris Gayle batting for the entire innings. He agonisingly remained unbeaten on 99 but it was a brilliant knock from the legendary cricketer.

Rather Gayle was dropped on 8 and then later in the innings by none other than AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli in the first innings. The Universe Boss made them pay for their mistakes. But the credit has to go to the visiting side’s bowlers who didn’t let him unleash his strokes even during the death overs. He was anyways going to hit some of the deliveries out of the park but it was a not Gayle-like innings.

Nevertheless, only his knock propelled the team to fighting but under-par total of 173 runs for the loss of four wickets after 20 overs.

Kohli and AB de Villiers guide the chase

In the chase, it was all about Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers. The duo got together after Parthiv Patel got out early in the innings. The left-hander made some quick runs in the powerplay but Ravi Ashwin snaffled him. However, the dream duo added 85 runs together for the third wicket even as the two players went past the 50-run mark, not for the first time in the history of the IPL.

But as the ball became old, the hitting became considerably difficult. They slowed down which increased the tension. Moreover, Kohli’s wicket led to the game going down the wire until the end. But Marcus Stoinis took the pressure off De Villiers and killed the game with some lusty blows. RCB won the game with four balls to spare and finally got two points on the board.

Man of the Match, AB de Villiers said:

Waited for a long time for this, so we’re very happy. It’s a very small step in the right direction, but also a big one. I’ve got too much respect of the game to be upset about that, to get ahead of myself, to get too hard on myself.

It needs one knock to get back in that confidence zone, and hopefully I can maintain that now. That’s exactly the reason I’ve decided not to play international cricket – to be as sharp as I can in the other forms of cricket around the world. Can’t keep playing 10-11 months a year and keep being sharp after 15 of my career.

Get to work with the university guys, the local guys, which gives me the motivation to be an example for them. Was a fantastic move to get Dale involved. We all know what he’s capable of. One thing for sure is he’ll give 200% with every ball. We know what we have to do. We have to win a lot of games of cricket. The next step is Mumbai, the Wankhede stadium. We love playing cricket there.

Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper, Virat Kohli said:

Most pleasing thing is coming for an interview at this time, and not immediately out of the field. Great feeling to get across the line. Have been unlucky in couple of games. Won’t say we’ve been unlucky in every game, but a couple of games we should’ve closed out before this.

After so many setbacks, the guys had desire. That’s one word we spoke about. We thought 190 will be par and to restrict them to 170 was a great effort. To pick up 4 wickets in 8 overs in the middle for 60 runs was a great effort.

Kings XI Punjab skipper, Ravi Ashwin said:

(On why Sarfaraz bowled the last over) There were only 6 runs to go and the ball was sliding on nicely. I thought the the best way against AB and Stoinis was to try and go with a leggie, not that Sam can’t defend.

We tried with wrist spinners and even I came to bowl, but they were smart enough to knock around and not take any chances.

We let ourselves down in the field. We dropped catches and let a lot of balls go through us. The dew helped the wicket on. It was really dry in the first half. It gets better to bat in the second half.

With 38 needed off 3 overs, I had to back my best bowlers to do the job, didn’t quite work out today. It’s (crowd) the best I have seen in Mohali. Hope they come out in large numbers. We play one here and go off to Delhi. We need to string some wins. It’s not a bad time to get some momentum back.

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