There were two standout performers in Kings XI Punjab’s win over Royal Challengers Bangalore at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on Friday.
Axar Patel’s magnificent striking with the bat helped the visitors get to a total of 138-7 in their 20 overs as he scored an unbeaten 38 from just 17 deliveries at the back-end of Punjab’s innings.
The one six and two fours he hit in the final over of the innings helped Kings XI gain some momentum before the break. He then came on to take three wickets for 11 runs with the ball to complete a top all-round performance.
Despite Patel’s heroics, the best player of the day surely has to be Sandeep Sharma. The Indian fast bowler ripped the heart of the Royal Challengers’ batting, taking three crucial wickets in the Powerplay overs with some fabulous swing bowling.
Sandeep, in fact, became the first-ever bowler to dismiss the three superstars of RCB’s batting line-up [Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, and AB de Villiers] in the same innings.
It wasn’t so surprising that he ended up being named as the Player of the Match at the end of the game.
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