K.L. Rahul once again led from the front with a half-century (63, 52b, 7x4, 2x6) to help Kings XI Punjab post a tall 178-run total against Chennai Super Kings at the Dubai International Stadium on Sunday.
He was assisted by some brutal hitting from Nicholas Pooran at the back end of the innings — a cameo of 33 off just 17 balls (1x4, 3x6) — to give the Kings sufficient tailwind.
Electing to bat, Rahul and Mayank Agarwal laid the foundation for a big score with a 61-run opening wicket stand. Rahul was not at his fluent best, but still produced some glorious cuts and drives when allowed to free his arms. The cover drive off Sam Curran for his first boundary and the cut off Deepak Chahar in third over were the stand-out shots early on.
Mayank was the first to go when he hit a short ball from Piyush Chawla straight to mid-wicket. Mandeep Singh, who replaced Karun Nair, looked aggressive, hitting Chawla for two sixes in one over. But the Punjab batsman couldn’t build on it and perished as he drove a wide delivery straight to the cover fielder off Jadeja’s bowling.
The left-arm spinner came up with an improved bowling performance, keeping the Kings batsmen quiet during the middle overs (4-0-30-1).
Rahul, who was watchful until then, scoring just 46 off 45 balls, launched into Shardul Thakur in the 15th over. He started with a six over long-off to get to his fifty before hitting him for two more boundaries -- first a cut through point and then a late-cut.
At the other end, Pooran came out all guns blazing with a four and six off Jadeja’s final over before picking two more maximums of Curran and Bravo. Shardul, however, came back strongly, removing both Pooran and Rahul off successive deliveries and helped limit the damage.