The pragmatism of captain Shikhar Dhawan was the bedrock on which Punjab Kings built their 176 for six as Royal Challengers Bangalore bowlers found their bearings on a Chinnaswamy Stadium pitch that offered them springboard bounce on Monday. Dhawan (45, 37b), Jitesh Sharma (27, 20b) and Prabhsimran Singh (25, 17b) were the main contributors for the Kings after Royal Challengers opted to bowl first on a track that had a smattering of green. For RCB, Mohammed Siraj and Glenn Maxwell took wickets apiece. The Kings made a shaky beginning as Jonny Bairstow got out early as his outings on these shores, which is stretched back to last year’s World Cup, has now become more barren than the Indian summer. In the latest instance, the Englishman’s poorly-executed close-to-the-body pull of pacer Siraj was taken by Virat Kohli inside the covers.

But from 17 for one, the visitors found some runs through Dhawan and Prabhsimran who tackled the pitch and the RCB bowlers with aplomb, milking 55 runs off 38 balls.

Dhawan was not precisely smooth during his stay but showed enough pluck to cash in on the loose deliveries, such as a length ball on the off-stump from left-arm spinner Mayank Dagar which he lofted over long-on for a six.

Bro didn’t even hesitate

Reminder: He almost injured his finger in the previous game with a similar attempt#PlayBold #ನಮ್ಮRCB #IPL2024 #RCBvPBKS

pic.twitter.com/R9bdpNhcql

— Royal Challengers Bengaluru (@RCBTweets) March 25, 2024

In fact, the RCB bowlers, especially impressive left-arm seamer Yash Dayal (1/23), did well to tie him down with deliveries that darted in to him from just short of good length.

Prabhsimran also occasionally vented his aggressive instincts, and the most telling piece was his flicked six off Cameron Green that sailed 90 meters over mid-wicket for a maximum.

But just as the alliance was blossoming, Prabhsimran tried to pull Maxwell but a feeble top edge was easily grabbed by stumper Anuj Rawat.

Rawat soon doubled the number of his catches when he latched on to a wild heave outside the off-stump by Liam Livingstone off Alzarri Joseph in the last ball of the 12th over.

But the Punjab side suffered a heavier blow as Dhawan got in the very next ball.

The left-hander’s attempt to hoist Maxwell out of the ground ended in the hands of Kohli at long-on as the Kings slipped to 98 for four in 12.1 overs.

It wasn’t an ideal situation for Kings as they needed a few more runs on the board to give a meaningful challenge to the home side.

They found those from Jitesh, who hammered Dagar for two sixes in a row, and Sam Curran, who added 52 runs for the fifth wicket off 34 balls to push the PBKS past the 150-run mark, that was swelled by a couple of beefy hits by Shashank Singh, who carted Joseph for 20 runs in the final over.

But they would have liked a heavier looking scoreboard in pursuance of their second successive victory.