The Kings XI Punjab beat the Royal Challengers Bangalore by seven wickets and with one over to spare to notch their first win in the second season of the Indian Premier League. The Bangalore team has lost their third successive match, while Punjab’s win came off their third encounter.
The Challengers won the toss and decided to field first. This was mainly due to the fact that the pitch was expected to swing under the lights. Unfortunately for the Royal Challengers, the lights caused the dew to wet the ball on a consistent basis and this ultimately became one of the biggest causes of their loss.
Batting first, the Challengers lost their first wicket in the form of Robin Uthappa (0) very early, but a second wicket partnership of 42 runs in reasonably quick time put them back on track. Jesse Ryder’s return to form was very welcome but his cameo was cut short by Yusuf Abdullah’s first wicket of the tournament. Kevin Pietersen’s woes with the bat continued as he was gone without scoring, while Rahul Dravid did not last too long either.
It was only Kallis’ explosive batting in the end and his 61-run stand with Ross Taylor that put them to a score of respectability. The South African scored 68 as the RCBs ended at 168/9 in the 20 overs. Yusuf Abdullah picked up four wickets in his spell and conceded 31 runs.
In reply, the Kings opened with Ravinder Bopara and Karan Goel and had a reasonable first wicket partnership of 52 runs, but when the latter did get out in the seventh over, the expected collapse never materialised. 
Kumara Sangakkara continued from where Goel left off, and continued rotating the strike with Bopara, who soon completed his half century. Anil Kumble did manage to get rid of the wicket-keeper, and the asking kept climbing to about 12 runs in the last five overs with eight wickets standing.
It was here that the match turned around for the Kings, and that, with an ease. Without looking to hit a shot in anger, the batting team carved 19 runs off Praveen Kumar in the 16th, and this was followed by another 13 in a Kallis over and 17 were then conceded by Jesse Ryder. The match looked all over bar the shouting at this stage, and though Kallis did manage to pick up Bopara – who scored 84 in 59 balls – Yuvraj finished off the game in style by smashing the bowler for a six over his head.
Bopara’s match-winning inning earned him the Man-of-the-Match and his team, the first win of the tournament.