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Riding on impressive century from captain Adam Gilchrist and a record breaking patnership pf 206 between the skipper and Shaun Marsh, King XI Punjab defeated the high flying Royal Challengers Bangalore by 111 runs. Set 232 to chase, RCB never got going as they lost wickets at regular intervals and were bundled out for 121. For the home team Piyush Chawla was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4/17. With the second biggest victory in IPL history, Kings XI Punjab move to 14 points and need to win their final match against Deccan Chargers on Saturday here to present their case for the play offs. RCB on the other hand, will look at this defeat as a blip on their radar and will look to get their act together when they face Chennai on Sunday. The margin of victory was an added bonus for Kings XI as it boosted their negative net run rate to 0.271 and gives them the opportunity to compete should they be locked on points in the battle for a top four spot. RCB on the other hand would not be so bothered with their rained out match against the Rajasthan Royals early in the season making the NRR statistic irrelevant in their qualifying aspirations.

Two teams on a fantastic winning streak looked to carry on the momentum at arguably India's most picturesque cricketing venue in Dharamshala. Punjab were in a must win situation to make the play offs, and had won their last 3 encounters while their opponent from the South, Royal Challengers Bangalore, had been unbeaten in their last 7 matches, largely due to the exploits of a certain West Indian powerhouse Chris Gayle. Despite being assured of a place in the top four spots, RCB would like to continue with their winning momentum and guarantee a spot in the top two so that they play the final qualifier rather than eliminator match.

Punjab won the toss and had no hesitation in opting to bat first on what has generally been a batsmen friendly track. The hosts brought in Abhishek Nayar instead of left arm spinner Bharghav Bhatt. Bangalore, on the other hand, included Asad Pathan and Johan Van der Wath, who replaced Luke Pomersbach and Zaheer Khan.

For the home side, Paul Valthaty walked out along with captain Adam Gilchrist and looked to dominate proceedings straight away. He hit Van der Wath for a boundary in the very first over before welcoming Charl Langeveldt with a flat six over the covers. Valthaty rode his luck, an edge flew through the slip region leaving the South African paceman fuming. Langeveldt, soon had his revenge though, when Valthaty (20) miscued an attempted heave of a slower one only to find Saurabh Tiwary settle nicely under it. After drawing the first blood, the visitors pulled things back somewhat, restricting Punjab to 30/1 in the powerplay overs.

After the field spread, Gilchrist opened up his shoulders too. A trademark pull over square leg in Abhimanyu Mithun’s first over, which was Gilly’s 100th hit over the ropes, got things moving for Punjab. In the next over Sreenath Aravind was picked out for some special treatment. Gilchrist started the mayhem, hitting Aravind for a six over mid off before crashing him for for four more. Shaun Marsh, in the same over, emulated his captain hitting a six and a four. Chris Gayle was given a taste of his own medicine when Gilchrist smacked him for consecutive sixes, motoring the run rate past 8 an over.

Kohli, in a desperate bid to get a breaktrough brought back Langeveldt, but to no avail. The move rather suited the marauding Gilchrist, who smashed 3 more sixes off the hapless opening bowler. He first picked a slower one and put it in over the square leg fence before a short arm jab over midwicket brought up his fifty off just 24 balls. At the halfway stage, Punjab had amassed 99 for the loss of a solitary wicket, with 58 coming off the last 3 overs.

RCB were badly missing the services of their premier new ball bowler Zaheer Khan as several bowlers were rotated around but none managed to put the brakes on the scoring rate. A desperate Kohli even brought himself on but Gilchrist made sure he too didn’t go unpunished. A hit over midwicket just managed to elude Langeveldt before he finished the over with a wallop through the covers. Shaun Marsh, who was so far unnoticed at the other end made his presence felt belting Van der Wath for as many as 30 in his third over. He started of with consecutive sixes before a boundary through the extra cover brought up his half century, continuing the rich vein of form he has shown in the tournament. Two more boundaries and six before finishing the over meant that RCB were facing a double barrel assault from the Aussie duo.

Punjab couldn’t have asked for a better platform going into the final five overs. After the second time out both batsmen continued their aggressive approach, fast moving the score towards the 200 run mark. Gilchrist smashed Van der Wath for a six and four more, making his way into the nineties. Another six off Aravind in the penultimate over, his ninth of the evening, brought up the highest ever partnership in Twenty20 cricket, eclipsing the previous record of 186 set by another Australian duo Justin Langer and Cameron White for Somerset against Gloucestershire. In the last over Gilly smoked one over extra cover to bring up his century, the second in his IPL career off just 53 balls which included 7 hits to the fence and 9 over it. Bangalore finally broke the massive 206 run association when the former Aussie stumper, trying to improvise, found Gayle at short third man.
Punjab ended their quota of 20 overs on a massive 232/2 , the third highest total in IPL history.

Chasing 232, it was almost necessary for Bangalore that Chris Gayle continued to be the storm he has been in this edition of IPL. But much to the dismay of the visitors he disappointed, scoring a seven ball duck. After playing out a maiden from Praveen Kumar, Gayle edged an outgoing delivery from Ryan Harris and Gilchrist continued his fantastic day, taking an acrobatic catch behind the stumps. Virat Kohli, who replaced Gayle in the middle had a reprieve early on, with Valthaty putting down a difficult chance. Kohli let his intentions be known, hitting two consecutive boundaries off Harris but couldn’t carry on for long. Going for his third boundary off the over, he top edged a pull and Dinesh Karthik made no mistakes under it. He made a run a ball 11. Just befor the powerplay overs were bowled out, Saurabh Tiwary(6), who had come out opening the innings alongwith Gayle, pulled a short one from Shalab Srivastava straight to David Hussey at midwicket, leaving Bangalore in tatters at 34/3.

Asad Pathan (7) joined Ab de Villiers in the middle, but he too didn’t last long. Pathan planted Valthaty in the stands, but when he tried to repeat the effort all he managed to do was present a simple catch to Hussey at cover. Former India star Mohammad Kaif tried to up the ante, hitting three boundaries off Srivastava in his second over. But he too was soon sent back when his Uttar Pradesh teammate Piyush Chawla had him stumped for 15. Chawla, who was in beautiful rhythm today, soon had another one when he flummoxed Arun Karthik (6) with a googly. In the same over RCB’s final hopes were also erased, with Ab de Villiers (34) top edging a slog sweep and Gilchrist doing the needful. Incidentally, this was also the 50th dismissal for Gilchrist in IPL.

Chawla, before completing his quota of 4 overs picked another one, removing van der Wath as Bangalore further slipped in their pursuit. Chawla finshed with figures of 4-0-17-4. From here on it was only a matter of time before the visitors got bundled out. The tailenders hit some lusty blwos before Srivastava finished things off, castling Langeveldt.

Teams:

KXIP:·P Valthaty, A Gilchrist, S Marsh, D Karthik, D Hussey, A Nayar, M Singh, S Srivastava, P Chawla, P Kumar, R Harris,

RCB:·C Gayle, V Kohli, AB De Villiers, A Karthik, M Kaif, S Tiwary, A Pathan, S Arvind, J van der Wath, A Mithun, C Langeveldt

Mini Scorecard:

Kings XI Punjab 232/2 (20 overs, 11.6rpo)
A Gilchrist 106 (55) C Langeveldt 2/42
S Marsh 79 (49) C Gayle 0/35

Royal Challengers Bangalore 121 all out (17 overs, 7.11rpo)
AB de Villiers 34 (27) P Chawla 4-17
M Kaif 15 (11) R Harris 3-28

KXIP win by 111 runs