IPL 2020: Match 31, RCB vs KXIP – Pooran’s finishing, KXIP’s narrow win, Gayle’s comeback and more stats

Kings XI Punjab finally broke their 5-match losing streak by clinching an 8-wicket victory against the Royal Challengers Bangalore in Sharjah. A collective effort by the KXIP bowler after an expensive powerplay saw the Bangalore team getting restricted to 171/6 in 20 overs. In the chase, Mayank Agarwal smashed a 25-ball 45 to bring down the required rate under eight. KL Rahul (61*) and Chris Gayle (53) struck fifties but pressure built up when Yuzvendra Chahal gave only one run in first five balls of the 20th over. Nicholas Pooran completed the formalities by smashing the final ball for a six.

Here are all the statistical highlights from Kings XI Punjab’s close win in RCB vs KXIP:
A narrow victory for Kings XI:
8 – Kings XI Punjab became the first team in the IPL to complete a chase on the last ball despite losing as few as two wickets. They are also only the 2nd team in Twenty20 cricket to register an 8-wicket win while reaching the target on the final ball of 20th over.

Sydney Sixers got to the target of 157 on the final ball of their chase against Perth Scorchers during the 2017-18 BBL by losing only two wickets. It was the first win of that BBL season for the Sixers having lost each of their first six games.

3 – RCB vs KXIP witnessed only the 3rd instance of Kings XI Punjab in the IPL where they managed to chase down a target on the final ball of a match. They chased down 154 against KKR in 2009 losing six wickets and defeated Deccan Chargers by four wickets chasing down 191 in the 2012 season.

This was also just the 2nd instance of Royal Challengers Bangalore losing an IPL match on the last ball while defending a total. They lost to Chennai Super Kings by five wickets in their defence of the 205-run total during the 2012 edition.

Gayle @ 10000:
10006 – Chris Gayle now has 10006 runs in the Twenty20 format coming through boundaries as he struck 1027 fours and 983 sixes. Kieron Pollard and Shoaib Malik are the only other cricketers to even aggregate 10000 T20 runs till date.

Pooran finishes off in style:
1 – Nicholas Pooran is now the first player to hit a six on the last ball of an IPL game to win for Kings XI Punjab. This is overall the 9th instance in the IPL where a player hit a six on the final ball of the match in a successful chase. It is also the first such instance coming against the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

2 – Nicholas Pooran is only the 2nd player in the IPL history whose only ball faced during a run-chase turning out to be a six. Aditya Tare hit a six for Mumbai Indians with the only ball he faced against Rajasthan Royals in 2014. Tare needed to hit a boundary to see MI get into the playoffs.

Milestone game for Kohli:
200 – The RCB vs KXIP is Virat Kohli’s 200th Twenty20 match for Royal Challengers Bangalore making him the first player to feature in 200 T20s for a team. Kohli featured in 185 games in the IPL and 15 of them in the CLT20 for RCB.

A rare inning down the order for Gayle:
1 – Chris Gayle’s 53-run knock in RCB vs KXIP is now his first fifty-plus score while batting at No.3 or lower position in Twenty20 cricket. Gayle struck 22 hundreds and 82 fifties in T20s before this game; all of them while opening the innings.

5 – Gayle has scored 50+ runs in each of his last five innings in the Twenty20 format at the Sharjah Stadium. The Universe boss had fifties in each of his last four innings during the Afghanistan Premier League T20 in 2018 – 56, 54, 73 and 80.

Chahal @ 200:
200 – The wicket of Mayank Agarwal is now the 200th wicket picked by Yuzvendra Chahal in his Twenty20 career. He is now the 5th Indian player to bag as many as 200 wickets in the T20 format. Chahal reached the milestone in 180 games making him the 2nd fastest Indian to 200 T20 wickets after Amit Mishra (169).

Rahul remains unbeaten against RCB:
193 – KL Rahul has scored 193 runs in his two innings against RCB in this IPL without getting dismissed. He scored an unbeaten 132 in the fixture hosted by Dubai and 61 runs during RCB vs KXIP in Sharjah. These are the most number of runs scored by any player in an IPL edition without being dismissed. Rahul surpassed his own record which he created by scoring 179 runs in 2018 against Rajasthan Royals.