The Royal Challengers Bangalore kept their playoff aspirations alive after securing a dramatic one- run victory over bottom side, the Kings XI Punjab in Mohali yesterday.
Chasing 176 for victory, the Kings XI will lament the fact that, once again, their batsman failed to gel as a unit. Murali Vijay, not for the first time, was left looking at his teammates, yearning for a batting partner who could provide some substantial support from the other end.
The Indian international is in a different batting league than his teammates at the moment and if his side had one or two more players of his ilk, they’d surely be title contenders.
He valiantly carried his side within reach of the finish line, scoring 89 from 57 balls, including twelve 4s, but holed out to long off from the bowling of Shane Watson (2-22 from 4).
Marcus Stoinis atoned for a poor display in the field earlier, which included a drop catch and expensive bowling, by almost winning it at the end, scoring 33 from 22.
What will irk Vijay the most is that his bowlers are in fine form. Restricting RCB to 175 is no easy feat, and were it not for a trademark AB de Villiers knock, that total would have been much smaller.
His 64 from 35 wasn’t titanic, but it was an AB classic and gave the Royal Challengers Bangalore bowlers something to defend.
Drives down the ground, pulls in front of square and lofted scoops from one knee; this man has no peers when in this kind of mood.
So great has Virat Kohli’s form been this season that many were starting to consign AB de Villiers to a support act. But when Kohli’s struggling innings came to an end when he mistimed to short extra cover for 20 from 20 balls in the 8th over, you somehow knew that de Villiers would take his rightful place in the spotlight.
Vijay was full of praise for the superstar South African in his post-match comments, but will no doubt be looking at his own foreign imports with glaring eyes.
David Miller’s poor season continued and only he will know what he was thinking when he decided to charge down the crease to his very first ball. Yusvendra Chahal (2-30 from 4) had all the time in the world to make a slight adjustment and release the ball from the back of his hand.
The googly ensured that Miller was nowhere near the pitch. Lokesh Rahul duly obliged and moved Miller’s season from below par to outright poor.
Most of the talk before this match concerned the misaligned abilities that each team has shown throughout the tournament.
The Kings XI Punjab have been a fantastic bowling team without much coming from their batsmen while RCB, who possess the most destructive batting unit in the competition, have struggled to restrict teams – their bowlers were the most expensive in the tournament, going at 9.45 per over, before the start of this match.

Brief Scores: Royal Challengers Bangalore 175 for 6 (De Villiers 64, Rahul 42, Cariappa 2-16) beat Kings XI Punjab 174 for 4 (Vijay 89, Stoinis 34*, Watson 2-22) by one run