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Kings XI Punjab were the semi-finalists in IPL T20 season 1 but this year they failed to impress with two consecutive losses in their first two matches. Rain was also not favorable and Preity Zinta’s team had matches affected by rain too. Bangalore Royal Challengers was not very impressive too under new captain Kevin Pietersen with two consecutive losses although they won their first match against Rajasthan Royals. Today’s 11th Match of IPL T20 season 2 was important for both sides. Pietersen won the toss and decided to bat but he was himself unimpressive once again and went off for a duck. However, some good batting by Jacques Kallis (62 off 46 balls), Ross Taylor (35 off 22 balls) and Jesse Ryder (32 off 21 balls) helped the Challengers to reach a total of 168/9 in 20 overs. Yusuf Abdulla and Irfan Pathan had the best bowling statistics for the Kings with 4/31 and 3/35 respectively. The Kings started their batting without taking much risks and Ravi Bopara (84 off 59 balls) steered the Kings XI Punjab to victory with valuable contributions from Yuvraj Singh (30 off 17 balls) and Kumar Sangakkara (26 off 18 balls) with one over to spare. Ravi Bopara was awarded the Man of the Match for his 84 runs off 59 balls.

Full Scorecard

Bangalore Royal Challengers

Batsmen Status Runs Balls 4s 6s S.Rate
Jesse Ryder b Yusuf Abdulla 32 21 6 0 152.38
Robin Uthappa (W) c Yuvraj Singh b Irfan Pathan 0 1 0 0 0
Jacques Kallis c Mahela Jayawardena b Yusuf Abdulla 62 46 5 2 134.78
Kevin Pietersen (C) c Karan Goel b Yusuf Abdulla 0 2 0 0 0
Rahul Dravid c VRV Singh b Piyush Chawla 10 13 0 0 76.92
Ross Taylor c Mahela Jayawardena b Yusuf Abdulla 35 22 4 2 159.09
Virat Kohli c Ravi Bopara b VRV Singh 2 3 0 0 66.67
Praveen Kumar lbw b Irfan Pathan 13 7 0 1 185.71
Vinay Kumar not out 1 1 0 0 100
Pankaj Singh b Irfan Pathan 0 1 0 0 0
Anil Kumble not out 5 3 1 0 166.67
Extras: b – 4, w – 3, nb – 0, lb – 1 8
Total: (168 for 9 wickets in 20.0 overs) 168 Run Rate: 8.4

Fall of Wickets1-6 (Robin Uthappa, 1.1), 2-48 (Jesse Ryder, 5.2), 3-48 (Kevin Pietersen, 5.4), 4-73 (Rahul Dravid, 10.3), 5-134 (Jacques Kallis, 16.3), 6-142 (Virat Kohli, 17.4), 7-159 (Ross Taylor, 18.4), 8-162 (Praveen Kumar, 19.1), 9-162 (Pankaj Singh, 19.2)

Bowling (Mohali)Bowler O M R W nb wd R/O
Ranadeb Bose 2 0 24 0 0 0 12
Irfan Pathan 4 0 35 3 0 0 8.75
Yusuf Abdulla 4 0 31 4 0 3 7.75
Piyush Chawla 4 0 19 1 0 0 4.75
Yuvraj Singh 3 0 28 0 0 0 9.33
Ravi Bopara 1 0 4 0 0 0 4
VRV Singh 2 0 22 1 0 0 11

Power Play
Power Play 1 Overs: 1-6

Kings XI Punjab

Batsmen Status Runs Balls 4s 6s S.Rate
Ravi Bopara c Jesse Ryder b Jacques Kallis 84 59 4 5 142.37
Karan Goel run out (Vinay Kumar) 19 19 1 0 100
Kumar Sangakkara (W) c Pankaj Singh b Anil Kumble 26 18 2 1 144.44
Yuvraj Singh (C) not out 30 17 3 1 176.47
Mahela Jayawardena not out 1 1 0 0 100
Irfan Pathan
Wilkin Mota
Piyush Chawla
VRV Singh
Ranadeb Bose
Yusuf Abdulla
Extras: b – 1, w – 9, nb – 0, lb – 3 13
Total: (173 for 3 wickets in 19.0 overs) 173 Run Rate: 9.11

Fall of Wickets1-52 (Karan Goel, 6.4), 2-92 (Kumar Sangakkara, 12.3), 3-158 (Ravi Bopara, 18.1)

Bowling (Bangalore)Bowler O M R W nb wd R/O
Praveen Kumar 4 0 36 0 0 1 9
Pankaj Singh 2 0 20 0 0 2 10
Jacques Kallis 4 0 51 1 0 2 12.75
Vinay Kumar 1 0 4 0 0 0 4
Kevin Pietersen 2 0 16 0 0 0 8
Anil Kumble 4 0 19 1 0 0 4.75
Jesse Ryder 2 0 23 0 0 0 11.5

Power Play
Power Play 1 Overs: 1-6

Sri Lankan captain and member of IPL team Kings XI Punjab Sangakkara feels that Buchanan’s captaincy idea can help in the evolution of cricket. John Buchanan who is the the coach of IPL T20 team Kolkata Knight Riders had suggested that there would be division of duties within four captains in the KKR team. Buchanan concept for Indian Premier League season 2 had made him a source of hatred in Kolkata and West Bengal as the local people could not accept the fact that the powers of the Prince of Kolkata Sourav Ganguly would be diluted. Buchanan had given the suggestion that KKR players like Chris Gayle, Brendon Mccullum and David Hussey should be given captaining responsibility alongside Dada.

Though Buchanan did not find much support amongst the Indian public with his new idea but Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara feels that the concept is quite good. He believes that this concept might come in handy for T20 cricket as the evolving nature of the game requires changes in various aspects including captaincy. However, Sangakkara also said that there might be several problems too in such a concept as four different captains might have ego clashes in the field which might be harmful for the team.

Meanwhile, IPL 2 has not been very helpful for the Indian icons with many of the franchisees stripping the Indian captains of their captaincy. Gilchrist will be the full time captain of Deccan Chargers team in IPL T20 season 2 after the DC franchisees replaced VVS Laxman with Gilly last year. Vijay Mallya’s Bangalore Royal Challengers have dropped Dravid as the captain of the team and instead made way for Kevin Pietersen and Jacques Kallis. The justification given by most franchisees and coach is that these changes are inevitable as T20 is a more youth oriented game. However, only time and the IPL T20 season 2 will tell how these decisions turn out to be.