Bowlers and Wadhera shine as Punjab beats Bengaluru in rain-hit IPL game

IPL

Bowlers and Wadhera shine as Punjab beats Bengaluru in rain-hit IPL game

Online Desk

19 Apr 25 01:54:04

Nehal Wadhera was the star of the Punjab innings

Punjab Kings bowlers steamrolled through the Royal Challengers Bengaluru's batting order to secure a five-wicket victory in a rain-reduced IPL match on Friday.

Punjab won the toss and chose to bowl. Arshdeep Singh, Marco Jansen and Yuzvendra Chahal each picked up two wickets to restrict Bengaluru to 95-9 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in a 14-overs-a-side game.

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Nehal Wadhera was the star of the Punjab innings, smacking an unbeaten 33 off 19 balls to help clinch the victory.

Punjab skipper Shreyas Iyer called Jansen's bowling "lethal".

"Variety is the spice of life and we are here to experience all kinds of games," Iyer said.

Bengaluru started disastrously, losing openers Phil Salt (4) and Virat Kohli (1) cheaply. Sharp bowling from Punjab ensured that wickets continued to fall, with batters Liam Livingstone(4), Jitesh Sharma (2) and Krunal Pandya (1) barely registering a presence.

Rajat Patidar tried to steady his side, hitting 23 runs off 18 balls. When the Bengaluru skipper was dismissed his team were a precarious 42-6 at the end of the eighth over.

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Tim David was defiant amid the batting collapse with an unbeaten 50 off 26 balls.

David, who smacked three sixes in the final over, dragged his team to 95-9, giving them something to fight for.

Mumbai's openers made a better start. Priyansh Arya hit 16 and Prabhsimran Singh 13, with the team ending the fourth over at 33-2.

Australian seamer Josh Hazlewood briefly offered hope to Bengaluru fans, striking twice in the eighth over to send back Shreyas Iyer (7) and Josh Inglis (14).

But clinical batting by Wadhera helped Punjab seal the game with 11 balls to spare.

"I think we could have done far better as a batting unit," said Patidar.

"The bowling unit is doing pretty well. We have confidence on our bowling unit," Patidar added, noting that sometimes the batting "clicks" and "sometimes it doesn't".

Bengaluru continued their home losing streak this season.

Punjab and Bengaluru will face each other again on Sunday.