Punjab beat Bangalore to stay alive in playoffs race

Punjab Kings registered a blistering 54-run win over Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2022 on Friday. With this result, the Punjab team is back in the play-off race. PBKS have 12 points from 12 matches. RCB have 14 points from 13 matches and that too are in contention for the last four.

Batting first after losing the toss, Punjab scored 209 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in 20 overs. Liam Livingston made 70 off 42 balls and Jonny Bairstow made 66 runs in 29 balls. Harshal Patel took four wickets. In reply, RCB's team could only score 155 runs for 9 wickets. Glenn Maxwell scored 35 runs. Virat Kohli could not return to form. He got out after scoring 20 runs. Kagiso Rabada took the highest three wickets for Punjab.

Rabada took Virat's wicket for the fourth time

Rabada has taken Virat's wicket for the fourth time. Captain Faf du Plessis also could not do much. He became the victim of Rishi Dhawan by scoring 10 runs in 8 balls. On both the occasions the umpire gave not out. It was clear from the review that the ball had hit the bat. Mahipal Lomror was also dismissed by Rishi Dhawan. Rajat Patidar scored 26 runs and gave wicket to Rahul Chahar. Harpreet Brar took the wicket of Glenn Maxwell. Dinesh Karthik became the victim of Arshdeep Singh after scoring 11 runs. The later batsmen also failed.

Punjab got a bang

Openers Shikhar Dhawan and Jonny Bairstow gave a stormy start to Punjab. Both of them shared a partnership of 60 runs in 20 balls. Dhawan scored 21 runs in 15 balls and gave the wicket to Glenn Maxwell. Bhanuka Rajapaksa was dismissed by Wanindu Hasaranga of his own country Sri Lanka. Punjab's third wicket fell in the form of Bairstow. Jonny Bairstow made 66 off 29 balls and was caught by Mohammad Siraj off Shahbaz Ahmed.

Captain Mayank Agarwal scored 19 runs in 16 balls. His wicket was taken by Harshal Patel. The fifth wicket fell in the form of Jitesh Sharma. He was bowled by Hasaranga. Harpreet Brar was shown the way to the pavilion by Harshal Patel. Patel, who was batting extremely dangerous, dismissed Livingstone in the 20th over. Patel also took the wicket of Rishi Dhawan.

Playing-11 of both the teams

Punjab: Jonny Bairstow, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhanuka Rajapakse, Mayank Agarwal (captain), Jitesh Sharma, Liam Livingstone, Rishi Dhawan, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Harpreet Brar, Arshdeep Singh.

Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis (Captain), Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, Dinesh Karthik, Mahipal Lomror, Shahbaz Ahmed, Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Mohammad Siraj, Josh Hazlewood.