Earlier, Parthiv got the team off to a quick-fire start despite Virat falling early. His 43-run knock helped RCB score 70 runs in the powerplay. De Villiers and Stoinis had to rebuild and during that phase, the run-rate came down drastically.
But the duo was set in the last few overs to affect a carnage literally to the KXIP bowlers. De Villiers, especially, targetted the opposition bowlers to bring his 360-degree game to the fore. He remained unbeaten on 82 in the end even as Stoinis got into the action in the final over where RCB added 27 runs to go past the 200-run mark.
KXIP choke in the end Gayle and Rahul got the team off to a superb start once again. But the former was trapped superbly by Umesh. Having said that, the runs came easily with every batsman coming and hitting sixes at will. Rahul was looking special on the day but he was undone by Moeen Ali after which the run-rate dipped alarmingly.
Pooran, however, smacked Sundar for three consecutive sixes to make the equation comparatively and with 47 needing in the four overs, the scales were heavily in the favour of KXIP. But RCB bowled superbly at the death for the first time to clinch victory by 17 runs.
