Dropped twice by Virat Kohli, captain KL Rahul smashed the first century of the season to lead Kings XI Punjab to 206/3 against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Indian Premier League.
Sent in to bat, Rahul opened the innings and batted for all 20 overs, finishing with an unbeaten 69-ball 132 – the highest score by an Indian in the league – in Dubai on Thursday, 24 September.
Rahul smashed the RCB bowlers all around the park, hitting 7 sixes and 14 boundaries, recording the highest score by a captain in the IPL.
He was dropped twice by RCB captain Kohli – first at 83 and then at 89.
The KXIP skipper stitched 57-run stands each with fellow opener Mayank Agarwal and Nicholas Pooran. Agarwal was bowled out by Yuzvendra Chahal for 26 (off 20 balls) while Pooran was caught out by AB de Villiers at mid-off off a delivery by Shivam Dube.
Dube also removed Glenn Maxwell (6-ball 5) and reduced Punjab to 128/3 in 15.2 overs.
Rahul and Karun Nair (8-ball 15*) stitched a 78-run unbeaten partnership with the skipper scoring the majority of the runs.
RCB pacer Dale Steyn was the most expensive bowler of the innings, going for 57 runs in 4 overs without a scalp. Fast bowlers Navdeep Saini (0/37) and Umesh Yadav (0/35) also failed to pick up any wickets. Dube returned with 2/33 while Chahal picked up one wicket and gave away 25 runs in four overs.
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