Sharjah, Oct 15 (IANS): Isuru Udana (10) and Chris Morris (25) smashed 24 off the last over to take Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) to 171/6 against Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Thursday.
RCB were struggling for much of the innings despite the quick start to the innings provided by openers Aaron Finch (20) and Devdutt Padikkal (18), as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals after the opening stand was broken.
AB de Villiers (2), who had smashed an unbeaten 73 off 33 balls in RCB's previous game, was demoted to No. 7 on Thursday with Washington Sundar (13) and Shivam Dube (23) being sent ahead of him. De Villiers came in during the 18th over and was dismissed by Mohammed Shami after scoring just two runs off five balls.
RCB captain Virat Kohli was the highest scorer for his team with 48 off 39 balls but it was Morris and Udana who took the team past the 150-run mark. Shami, who had given away just 21 runs in his first three overs and accounted for the wickets of Kohli and De Villiers, ended up being hit for a four and three sixes in the last over.
Brief scores: RCB 171/6 in 20 overs (Virat Kohli 48, Chris Morris 25; Murugan Ashwin 2/23)