Punjab Kings thrashed Royal Challengers Bangalore in their opening affair. They defeated RCB in a high-scoring affair by 5 wickets. PBKS all-rounder Odean Smith steered the 2014 finalist to an exciting win on the back of his cameo of 25 runs off 8 balls. Post-match, he said that the team needs to have a belief that they can win the trophy and everything is going to fall at the right places.
Punjab Kings won the toss and elected to field first. The pitch looked like it will assist pacers but that was not the case. RCB batsmen got off the mark from the go and smashed Punjab bowlers all across the park. Faf du Plessis smashed a quickfire knock of 88 runs off 57 balls with the help of three boundaries and seven sixes. Virat Kohli and Dinesh Karthik also played in their top-gear and guided RCB to a mammoth total of 205 runs for a loss of 2 wickets.
Punjab Kings thrashed Royal Challengers Bangalore in their opening game
At one moment, cricket fans thought that it is going to be a one-sided affair and RCB will easily grab a win. But that was not the case. Punjab King’s opening pair of Mayank Agarwal and Shikhar Dhawan stitched a brilliant partnership of 71 runs for the first wicket. Later on, Bhanuka Rajapaksa came and played a glittery knock of 43 runs off 22 balls with the help of two boundaries and four sixes. However, the target still looked far away from Punjab Kings reach with 66 runs needed in the last six overs.
Then came Shahrukh Khan followed by Odean Smith, who took RCB bowlers on a tour of the ground with their power-hitting. It was their power-packed performance that Punjab managed to chase down te total with one over to spare.
Odean Smith gathered 25 runs in the 18th overs of the innings against Mohammed Siraj. Shahrukh Khan supported West Indies all-rounder really well from the other batting end. He also managed 24 runs off 20 balls in the match.
Post-match, Odean Smith, who was awarded Man of the Match for his glittery knock, said that the team management wanted to get off the mark with a win in the tournament. As per him, the team had the belief that they can perform as per the expectations of the fans and management. He looked a bit upset for not having a good day with the ball. But at the same time, he was proud of the fact that he could guide his side to an enthralling win in the Indian Premier League.
“We were stressing about having a good start. We just needed to have that belief. Didn’t go so well with the bowling. I need to work on a few things. Batting was good as I helped my team to win,” said Odean Smith in a post-match presentation.
“It was all about execution and I couldn’t and that’s why it went haywire. Punjab hasn’t won the title so far but we need to have the belief. We watched ’14 peaks’, 13 remain for us,” he added.
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