Kings XI Punjab started off their 2017 IPL campaign on a positive note as they beat Rising Pune Supergiant by 6 wickets at the Holkar Stadium in Indore. Chasing a decent total of 164, Kings XI were off to a steady start, thanks to a cameo from Manan Vohra and Wriddhiman Saha.
After the fall of these two, Hashim Amla and Axar Patel, who was promoted to tackle Imran Tahir, steadied things in the middle before both were dismissed in the space of three balls with their team needing 79 runs to win.
Maxwell took charge and led from the front in his first match as a captain of Kings XI. He smashed two fours and four sixes in his knock of 44 off 20 balls and took his team home in the company of David Miller, who remained unbeaten on 30.
Extra Cover: IPL 2017: Kings XI Punjab vs Rising Pune Supergiant, Player Ratings
Earlier in the day, Rising Pune Supergiant were struggling to get to a decent score after losing the wickets of Ajinkya Rahane, skipper Steve Smith and MS Dhoni by the 12th over with just 71 runs on the board. Ben Stokes scored a brilliant fifty and some notable contributions from Manoj Tiwary and Dan Christian took their team to a respectable 163/3.
Here is how the cricketing fraternity reacted to Kings XI Punjab’s win.
Kings XI Punjab captain and Man of the Match, Glenn Maxwell: Nice to start off at the new home ground and give some joy. It hasn't been fruitful for us in the last 2 years. The way we came out with the bat and ball was pleasing. We just came in with positive minds and had our plans for each individual batsman. We were a bit off with the practice matches. In one of our practice matches, we scored just 130. Today's wicket was bit slow and bit spongy. Was very happy to restrict them to what we did.
Doing the job in first six is very important. That's something which we didn't in the last season. It is easier to chase. When you chase down, you need to time your chase well and keep your wickets in the back end. I'm hitting the ball quite well. It's nice to be comfortable. Feel like I can control. Nice to have the leadership and it's giving me the extra bit of responsibility. Hopefully, we keep the winning form.
RPS captain Steve Smith: Probably wasn't quite enough (the first innings score). The wicket hardened up for the second innings. We needed around 180 to be competitive. The wicket was a bit tacky and it was tough to score against the new ball.
We have to be a bit more aggressive and we need to play without fear. Could have gone a little bit harder. We played well in the back end. To get to 163 was reasonable, but probably needed more than that. New season, you gotta move forward and try and rectify the mistakes from last year. We'll try and get better with each and every game we play.
Kings XI coach Virender Sehwag
King XI players
Harsha Bhogle
Former Australian batsman Dean Jones
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