Punjab beat Bengaluru by five wickets in rain-shortened IPL game

PUNJAB KINGS defeated Royal Challengers Bengaluru by five wickets in a rain-affected IPL match on Friday.

The game, reduced to 14 overs per side, saw Punjab restrict Bengaluru to 95-9 before chasing down the target with 11 balls remaining.

Punjab won the toss and chose to bowl. Arshdeep Singh, Marco Jansen and Yuzvendra Chahal picked up two wickets each to damage Bengaluru's batting line-up at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Nehal Wadhera top-scored for Punjab, remaining unbeaten on 33 off 19 balls to guide the team to victory.

Punjab captain Shreyas Iyer praised Marco Jansen’s performance. "Variety is the spice of life and we are here to experience all kinds of games," Iyer said. He called Jansen's bowling "lethal".

Bengaluru struggled early in the innings. Openers Phil Salt (4) and Virat Kohli (1) were dismissed cheaply, and wickets continued to fall.

Liam Livingstone (4), Jitesh Sharma (2), and Krunal Pandya (1) also failed to make an impact.

Rajat Patidar made 23 off 18 balls in an attempt to steady the innings. By the end of the eighth over, Bengaluru were 42-6.

Tim David remained not out on 50 off 26 balls, hitting three sixes in the final over to take the total to 95-9.

Punjab made a more stable start in the chase. Priyansh Arya scored 16 and Prabhsimran Singh added 13 as the team reached 33-2 by the end of the fourth over.

Bengaluru’s Josh Hazlewood picked up two wickets in the eighth over, dismissing Shreyas Iyer (7) and Josh Inglis (14), but Punjab stayed on course.

Wadhera’s unbeaten innings helped Punjab close the game comfortably.

"I think we could have done far better as a batting unit," Patidar said.

"The bowling unit is doing pretty well. We have confidence on our bowling unit," he added. "Sometimes it clicks and sometimes it doesn’t."

Bengaluru's home losing streak continued with this result.

The two teams will meet again on Sunday.

(With inputs from AFP)