Faf and Karthik’s valiant efforts go in vain as Punjab chase down 205

In a tale of two contrasting halves, the Kings managed to walk out with bragging rights as they pipped the Challengers to the finishing line in a high-octane encounter.

Despite an oscillating narrative in the middle overs, a late blitzkrieg from Shahrukh Khan and Odean Smith made way for Punjab in the season opener.

There was definitely an extended arm of Lady Luck as three opportunities to break this partnership went begging for the Challengers but nothing stands in the way of how Odean Smith hammered home an absolute carnage to usher the Kings to the Promised Land.

The Challengers were off to a slow start that was later steadied by an ambitious Anuj Rawat. The youngster took his time to get his eyes in but managed to pull off a couple of belters to insinuate the upcoming tempest.

The new skipper for the Challengers, Faf du Plessis started on a slow note but as soon as he heard the warning bells ringing, he knew he had to bring the big guns out. Once he started firing, it felt like crossing the Rubicon for both the Kings and RCB.

There was a deluge of fours and sixes at the DY Patil Stadium as captain Faftastic managed to whiplash three fours and seven sixes. In fact, so brilliant was his onslaught, that he managed to garner 60 plus runs in the last 20 odd deliveries.

However, if Faf’s belligerence was the overture to RCB’s symphony, Dinesh Karthik’s destructive storm was the crescendo. The former KKR captain conjured a handful of stellar strikes to leave the Kings derailed. From the 14 balls that he faced, he managed to amass 32 runs starring 3 fours and 3 sixes.

Rahul Chahar was the pick of the lot for Punjab with the most economical display as he managed to claim figures of 22 for 1 from his spell of 4 overs.

With a momentous total of 205 on the cards, it initially felt that the Challengers had an upper hand but the two openers for Punjab levelled the equation with an electrifying start.

Both Dhawan and Mayank managed to conjure a string of boundaries, leaving Faf with some important decisions to make. It was the Sri Lankan spinner, Wanindu Hasaranga who managed to draw first blood as he bagged the all-important scalp of Mayank Agarwal.

However, the fall of their skipper did very little to dissuade Punjab of its hitting spree as Bhanuka Rajapaksa managed to conjure a devastating knock in the middle that proved to be a fatal blow for the Challengers.

As unpredictable that cricket is, RCB managed to reel the Kings back in, thanks to a decent cue of comeback lurking around the corners as Mohammed Siraj dealt them a double whammy while Harshal and Akash Deep claimed a wicket apiece to flip the tide.

It all boiled down to some late gutter war that would feature the willow and leather being ferociously in contention as the two teams started trading some hefty haymakers.

With all said and done, Mohammed Siraj had a rare fiasco where Odean Smith made it a point to target the express man as the former veered of his actual line. Despite the total being staggering in nature, it was Odean Smith’s late madness that left the Challengers with a handful of sad visages in the camp as they failed to wring out a desired result in the opener.