The IPL 2012 saw another last over finish at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore as the Kings XI Punjab beat the Royal Challengers Bangalore by 4 wickets in an action packed encounter. Having lost the toss and put into bat first, the Royal Challengers lost Mayank Agarwal early as his stumps were rattled by a peach of a delivery by Ryan Harris, who was playing his first match of the season. Virat Kohli joined the dangerous Chris Gayle in the middle and the two put on a 50 run stand. But they were batting very slowly and the Challengers could manage just 64 runs in 11 overs. Praveen Kumar bowled his 4 overs on the trot and gave away just 8 runs. He was swinging the ball both ways and the batsmen were really finding it tough to score of him. Even the big Chris Gayle could not hit a boundary of him. But Gayle began his onslaught in the 12th over and shifted gears. He was dropped by Miller on the fence and he made them pay for it.
Kohli was supporting him well at the other end and he too found some form. Suddenly, RCB had reached 128 in 15 overs. Just then Azhar Mahmood got the better of Gayle and dismissed him for 71. The RCB team was again dependent on de Villiers to take them past 175, but Mahmood cut his innings short. de Villiers was out scoring a mere 17. Punjab bowlers kept a check on the scoring rate and RCB got just 30 runs in the last 5 overs. Mahmood picked up 3 wickets for 20 as RCB finished on 158/5.
King XI Punjab knew that they had the momentum in their favour and they needed to bat well to get to 159. Punjab decided to open with Mandeep Singh and Shaun Marsh and the two provided a a solid start to their team. The Kings XI were 38/0 in the 5th over when Marsh was castled by MacDonald for 8. Saini was the next to face the heat and he responded well, playing intelligently mixing caution with aggression. The two youngsters Mandeep and Saini proved their mettle as they put on 35 for the 2nd wicket before Mandeep was trapped by Apanna. Skipper David Hussey did not let the momentum fall and he too gathered runs at a fair pace. Saini soon completed his maiden IPL 50 in 34 balls. All was looking too easy for Punjab when they were 146/2 in 16 overs and needed only 13 of 24 balls. But a series of run outs resulted in Punjab needing 2 of the last 2 balls with 6 wickets down. Chawla hit a six of Vinay Kumar and guided his team home. With this win Kings XI Punjab moved to no.4 in the points table with 10 points. Here are the scores:
RCB-158/5 (20)
Gayle-71 (42)
Kohli-45 (42)
Mahmood-3/20
KXIP-163/6 (19.5)
Saini-50 (36)
Hussey-45 (29)
Mandeep-43 (30)
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