RCB Fall short of a big Finish, set 191 for Punjab in Title clash at Ahmedabad

Facing Punjab Kings at the Narendra Modi Stadium in the IPL Final, Royal Challengers Bengaluru were asked to bat first as Punjab Skipper Shreyas Iyer won the toss and opted to bowl first. The final opening got off to an electrifying start as RCB  openers Phil Salt and Virat Kohli began with intent. 

Salt, known for his attacking style, smashed two fours and a six in the first over itself, taking on Arshdeep. However, Kyle Jamieson struck early in 2nd over and dismissed Salt with an easy catch to Shreyas Iyer. Mayank Agarwal walked at 3, kept the momentum, and smashed 24 runs before he got dismissed off a delivery by Chahal. Virat Kohli tried to anchor the innings with a steady 43 runs off 35 balls, but before he could build on more, he was dismissed by a delivery from Omarzai in the Final. Rajat Patidar and Liam Livingstone provided quickfire contributions of 26 runs and 25 runs respectively, but couldn’t make an impact and fell to Kyle Jamison’s variations.

RCB couldn’t bring much much-needed high-scoring runs to the ground and crumbled in the middle with their openers leaving early. The middle order tried but couldn’t make an impact and kept on losing wickets at regular intervals. The team ended with a medium target of 191 runs on the pitch of the Narendra Modi stadium for Punjab to chase. 

Both teams are eyeing their first title, and in order to keep their hopes alive for the maiden title, RCB will now need a strong performance with almost no misfields and a dominating performance from their bowling order. Only one here would win their title hopes, and the other will walk for some other year, some other season. Both teams have been dominant throughout the season and ended up at the number 1 and number 2 in the points table, winning 9 of their 14 league stage matches this season. Coming on, chase Punjab fans will pray for a dominating chase, unlike the last match. Meanwhile, RCB fans hoped for an early strike with wickets in the powerplay.