Bangalore: Star batsman AB de Villiers struck a half-century with a late flurry of sixes as the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) beat Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) by four wickets to register their first win in the IPL XI here on Friday.

De Villiers (57 off 40 balls) played anchor after the early departure of captain Virat Kohli (21) before he opened up his arms towards the end for some lusty blows as the RCB chased down the target of 156 with three balls to spare.

This was after the RCB bowlers, led by pacer Umesh Yafav who took three wickets in an over, had shot out KXIP for 155 after being sent into bat.

De Villiers hit two fours and four sixes in his knock. He was out in the 18th over, but by then he had taken his team to the threshold of victory with the hosts needing just 10 runs from 1.5 overs.

Mandeep Singh contributed 22 down the order, while Washingotn Sundar (9 not out) hit the winning runs as RCB reached 159 for fix in 19.3 overs at the Chinnaswamy.

RCB had lost to the Kolkata Knight Riders by four wickets in their first match on April 8.

RCB’s run chase did not have the best of starts as Brendon McCullum got out off the second ball of the innings for a first ball duck. 

Kohli was looking good in the company of Quinton de Kock (45), rotating the strike and getting the occasional boundaries, till he was bowled by a beauty of a delivery by Mujeeb-ur Rahman (1/29). 

The Afghan bowled a googly from the back of the hand to deceive Kohli and get the prized wicket. It pitched outside off and zipped back in sharply, which Kohli tried to drive but missed completely to see his stumps rattled. 

De Villiers came in and in the company of compatriot De Kock steadied the RCB innings. The South African duo stitched 54 runs for the third wicket before KXIP captain Ashwin (2/30) took two wickets — that of de Kock and Sarfaraz Khan (0) — off successive deliveries to keep his side in the hunt for a victory.

The home side reached 109 for four at the end of 15 overs, needing 47 from the final five overs. But with De Villiers still there, RCB had the batsman who could do the job.

Earlier, Umesh rocked the KXIP innings with a three-wicket burst in an over as RCB bowled out the visitors for 155. Put into bat, KXIP were reduced to 36 for three in the fourth over after Umesh (3/23) dismissed Mayank Aggarwal (15), Aaron Finch (0) and Yuvraj Singh (4) in the space of six balls in his second over to leave the visiting side in trouble early in their innings.

PTI