Bairstow, Livingstone star as PBKS thrash RCB in one-sided win

MUMBAI: English duo, Liam Livingstone and Jonny Bairstow, were exceptional, hitting classic fifties to help Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) secure a win over Punjab Kings at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday.

The two English batters hit the fifties to help their team post a 210-run target on the scoreboard, while the Kings' bowlers restricted their opponent to just 155 runs in 20 overs.

Faf du Plessis, the captain of RCB, won the toss and chose to bowl against Mayank Agarwal's PBKS in a critical IPL match.

Livingstone maintained the excellent work after Bairstow's blistering start, hitting RCB bowlers to all areas of the park and beyond for his fifty in 35 balls, but wickets continued to fall at the other end.

Bairstow put on a display of hard-hitting batting, scoring a half-century in just 21 balls to propel PBKS to 83/1, the best powerplay score of the season. Punjab Kings got off to a flying start, with Bairstow and Shikhar Dhawan attacking the Royal Challengers Bangalore spinners.

Glenn Maxwell ended the 60-run stand by dismissing Dhawan for 21 runs off 15 balls. Bhanuka Rajapaksa was sent back after Wanindu Hasaranga struck in his first over.

Shahbaz Ahmed ultimately dismissed Bairstow for 66 off 29 balls.

For RCB, Rajat Patidar and Maxwell kept the scoreboard ticking, but both were pulled early, giving PBKS the upper hand.

Rishi Dhawan stunned RCB by dismissing skipper Faf Du Plessis and Mahipal Lomror in short succession in an over. Openers Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli made RCB a strong start in their 210-run chase against PBKS, but Kagiso Rabada quickly dismissed the latter for 20 runs off 14 balls.

Rabada was the star performer with the ball for the Kings as he claimed three wickets while Rishi and Chahar took two wickets each.

Playing XIs: 

RCB: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis (c), Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Mahipal Lomror, Shahbaz Ahmed, Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Josh Hazlewood

PBKS: Jonny Bairstow, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Mayank Agarwal (c), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Liam Livingstone, Rishi Dhawan, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Harpreet Brar, Arshdeep Singh