Bopara and Yuvi help Punjab win a crucial match

Banglore Royal Challengers Vs Kings XI Punjab - Match 11 - Kingsmead, Durban - Bulletin

Ravi Bopara turned out to be a wise investment for Kings XI as he turned out to be the man who helped Kings XI break their loosing streak. Having lost all the matches in the competition Kings XI were up against Banglore, who were also on a loosing streak and desperate for a win. Having won the toss, Banglore decided to bat first and lost the wicket of Uthappa, early in the innings. For the first time in the tournament Jesse Ryder looked good and when he was starting to bat with a flourish, his stumps were rattled by Abdulla. Pieterson in the same over was dismissed for a duck and the man in form Dravid came to the crease. With Kallis going strong in the other end, Dravid only needed to consolidate and provide solidity to the innings, but Dravid decided to take on a well flighted slower ball from Chawla and perished. Kallis and Taylor added 60 runs for the fourth wicket, before Abdullah striked once more with the priced wicket of Kallis. Kallis departed for a well made 62 from 46 balls. Wickets kept falling at regular intervals one after the other and Banglore managed a highly defendable 168 at the end of twenty over.

So far in this series, Kings XI have had solid starts and this match was no exception. Goel and Bopara added 52 runs for the first wicket before Goel fell to an excellent throw from Vinay Kumar. With the asking run rate climbing steadily and reaching around 15 runs per over, Sangakara tried to slog a ball from Kumble out of the stands but the ball ended up safely in the hands of Pankaj Singh. Bopara along with Yuvaraj after playing a few overs carefully started shifting gears. Powered by the clean hitting of Yuvi and brilliant timing of Bopara Kings XI managed to win a game, which at one stage required 15 runs per over to win, with one over to spare. The extent to which the bowlers were made to have some terrible nightmare is evident from the fact that 49 runs were plundered in the last 3 overs of their innings by Kings XI. Banglore did manage to get the wicket of Bopara early in the nineteenth over, but it was a little too late.

Toss:
Banglore Royal Challengers won the toss and elected to bat

Teams:
Kings XI Punjab
R Bopara, K Goel, Yuvaraj Singh, K Sangakara, M Jayawardane, P Chawla, I Pathan, RR Bose, WA Mota, VRV Singh, YA Abdullah
Banglore Royal Challengers
J Kallis, R Uthappa, Jesse Ryder, K Pieterson, R Taylor, R Dravid, V Kohli, Pankaj Singh, P Kumar, Vinay Kumar, A Kumble

Brief Scores:
Banglore Royal Challengers - 168/9 in 20 overs(Kallis - 62, R Taylor - 35, YA Abdulla - 4/31,
I Pathan 3-35)
Kings XI Punjab - 173/3 in 19 overs(R Bopara - 84, Yuvaraj - 30 A Kumble - 1/19, Kallis - 1/51)

Result:
Kings XI Punjab won by 7 wickets with one over to spare