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In a game littered with IPL glitterati, two virtual unknowns—Odean Smith and Bhanuka Rajapaksa—ruled, taking Punjab Kings to a five-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore in their opening game at the DY Patil Stadium on Sunday.
Smith’s eight-ball 25*, of which he scored 23 in the 18th over bowled by Mohammed Siraj, shifted the momentum in Kings’ favour. Shahrukh Khan (24*—20b) applied the finishing touches—scoring 12 runs off the 19th over by Harshal Patel—to make sure Kings didn’t suffer late hiccups like last season, taking the team home with an over to spare.
In the middle overs, Sri Lankan left-hander Rajpaksa hit a 22-ball 44 (2×4, 4×6), making sure Kings stayed in the contest after a solid start given by new skipper Mayank Agarwal (32—24b) and Shikhar Dhawan (43—29b), who put on 71 runs together in just 7.1 overs. Rajapaksa was left out for Sri Lanka’s India tour. Ahead of that, he announced his retirement before changing his mind.
Chasing 206, Kings’ batters made sure they kept hitting the maximums—they hit 15 sixes.
When Dhawan was out in the 12th over, Kings still needed 88 off 52 balls with their big-hitters to come and they didn’t disappoint, Liam Livingstone (19—10b), Shahrukh and Smith taking them over the line.
RCB skipper Faf du Plessis took off from where he had left in 2021, having scored 86 for champions Chennai Super Kings in the final. He cashed in on his early reprieve to score 88 off 57 balls (3×4, 7×6). Former skipper Virat Kohli’s 41 (29 b) and Dinesh Karthik’s 32 (14b) late helped RCB post 205/5.
Du Plessis had a sedate start, scoring 17 off 30 balls at the halfway mark in RCB’s 70/1. But in the 12th over by Livingstone, he hit him for a six over long on, never looking back thereafter.
He hit 17 off the last four balls of the 13th bowled by Smith to bring up his ninth fifty against Punjab in IPL. He shared in a 61-ball 118-run stand with Kohli and RCB scored 135 runs in the last 10 overs.
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