[dropcap]H[/dropcap]arpreet Brar’s all-round performance and captain KL Rahul’s unbeaten 91 helped Punjab Kings beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 34 runs in the 26th match of IPL 2021 on Friday. Punjab Kings scored 179 for five with the help of Rahul’s unbeaten 91 runs. In response, the star-studded RCB could only manage 145 runs for eight wickets in 20 overs. For Bangalore, captain Virat Kohli scored the highest 35 runs. His innings ended by Left Harpreet. After losing the match to Punjab, Virat spoke about the positive aspects of the team and praised Rajat Patidar, who played a 31-run innings.
Virat said, ‘Our team had decided that we should allow Rajat Patidar to play freely on number three of his own free will. Because of them, our batting gives balance. ‘ Praising Rajat, Virat said that he is a quality player, but Friday was not his day. We let Punjab score 25 more runs in the last. If a batsman from our team had played till the end, the result could have been different.
Kohli said, ‘As a batsman we could do different things at the beginning of the innings. Achieving this score on Motera’s pitch was not easy at all. At that time we were trying to have a partnership and wanted the strike rate to be more than 110. In the last one we could not do it and lost the match. There are still many places for us, where we need to work hard.
In this match, Punjab’s left arm spinner Brar scored 25 runs off 17 balls, showing the Jauhar of the first bat and later bowled brilliantly, taking three most valuable wickets for 19 runs in four overs. Brar decided to win Punjab by sending dangerous batsmen like Virat Kohli (35), Glenn Maxwell (0) and AB de Villiers (3). Earlier, Devdutt Padikkal (seven) was also dismissed cheaply. After this win, Punjab are placed fifth in the latest point table with six points, while RCB are in third place with ten points.
