Kings XI Punjab broke their seven-match losing streak after they beat the Royal Challengers Bangalore comfortably by 22 runs in a rain-affected contest in Mohali on Wednesday.

After rain had delayed the start of the match by nearly four hours, KXIP, put in to bat, posted a competitive 106 on the board in their allotted ten overs and then restricted their opponents to 84-6.

KXIP had raced to 34 in two overs, before the opening pair was separated at the start of the third over. Wriddhiman Saha attempted to hit David Wiese over the top but couldn’t connect well and holed out to Mandeep Singh at long on; he made 31 from 12 balls – in what was his quickest innings in T20 cricket.

With contributions from the rest of the batsmen – Axar Patel’s 15-ball 20 being the second-highest score of the innings – KXIP finished with a total of 106 for six.

When it was their turn to chase, RCB kept losing wickets at regular intervals. The KXIP bowlers bowled disciplined the right lines and lengths and kept the RCB batsmen on a tight leash.

Mandeep was the top scorer of the innings, scoring 20 off 14 balls.

RCB captain Virat Kohli started with a blast, hitting two fours and a six, and raced to 19 from nine balls before he dragged a ball from Anureet Singh back on to his stumps.

Chris Gayle (17) was second to be dismissed when he edged a Sandeep Sharma bouncer to the wicket-keeper.

And when AB de Villiers (10) was dismissed in the seventh over – with RCB needing 40 runs from 20 balls – the contest was all but killed off.

For KXIP, Beuran Hendricks bowled a fantastic spell, conceding only nine runs in his two overs, while also picking up the wicket of Dinesh Karthik.

Axar Patel returned figures of 2-0-11-2, which included the scalps of De Villiers and Mandeep Singh, and earned him the Man of the Match award. Anureet Singh (2-21) and Sandeep Sharma were the other wicket-takers in the innings. – iplt20.com

Photo: Deepak Malik/SPORTZPICS/IPL/BCCI