Punjab Kings continued their winning run in the ongoing edition of Indian Premier League, defeating Royal Challengers Bengaluru by five wickets in a rain-curtailed encounter at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium, in Bengaluru, on Friday.
After the match was reduced to 14 overs, Punjab Kings won the toss and elected to bowl. Their bowling unit, comprising Arshdeep Singh, Marco Jansen, Yuzvendra Chahal and Harpreet Brar, used the conditions to their advantage and took two wickets each.
With Xavier Bartlett also picking a wicket, PBKS restricted the opposition to 95 for 9 in 14 overs, despite Tim David scoring an unbeaten half-century, off 26 balls, including five fours and three sixes.
Nehal Wadhera then contributed an unbeaten 33 off 19 balls to help Punjab complete the run-chase in 12.1 overs, with five wickets to spare.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, Punjab Kings left-arm spinner Harpreet Brar praised Wadhera for his tremendous batting performance and explained how the 24-year-old, who scored an unbeaten 33 off 19 balls, including three fours and as many sixes, has grown over the years.
"Nehal is a very good player. He has been playing IPL for past 2-3 years. He is a key player for Punjab in the domestic circuit. He played really well in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy knock-out games. He has been a really good player from the start. He also played well for the India Under-19 team. He is scoring runs here; so, as a senior, it makes us really proud," said Brar.
He went on to add that Nehal made the chase easier for Punjab on a tricky batting surface.
"As per the wicket, this is no scoring match. The way it was behaving today, it was a score of 180 on any surface. The level of bowlers in IPL was a difficult game. The way Nehal batted and scored boundaries made the game easy for us," added the 29-year-old.
Punjab Kings next plays the reverse fixture against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the New PCA Stadium, New Chandigarh, on Sunday, April 20.