Kings XI Punjab finally put up a disciplined effort with the bowl to restrict Royal Challengers Bangalore to 171 for six in their must-win IPL match in Sharjah on Thursday.
Skipper Virat Kohli top-scored with 48 off 39 balls in his 200th game for RCB but it was Chris Morris's 25 off 8 balls in the death overs that took the team to a competitive score.
The final over bowled by Mohammad Shami went for 24 runs and could well prove to be the difference on a pitch which is not the batting beauty it was at the start of the tournament.
Notwithstanding Shami's wayward 20th over, it was a much improved bowling effort from a team that has been leaking runs in the death overs game after game.
KXIP conceded only 25 runs from over 16-19 before Morris and Isuru Udana hammered Shami for three sixes.
After Kohli chose to bat, KXIP experimented by opening the bowling with Glenn Maxwell (0/28 in 4 overs). He was slog swept by his Australian teammate and close friend Aaron Finch on the final ball.
Other opener Devdutt Padikkal (18) also went for his shots with his best hit of the night being the whip off Shami that went for a six over deep square leg.
However, both Padikkal and Finch could not build on their starts. Padikkal was foxed by a slower one from left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh to be caught at cover, while Finch missed a fast leg-break from M. Ashwin, leaving RCB at 62 for two in the seventh over.
With Kohli looking good at the other end, AB de Villiers was expected to come in at his usual number four spot but with two leg-spinners in operation, left-handed batsman Washington Sundar was sent ahead of the South African.
The move did not work as he struggled to 13 off 14 balls.
KXIP, whose bowling has been the weakest link, did rather well from 11-14 overs conceding just 20 runs to put pressure on the opposition.
RCB needed to move on and southpaw Shivam Dube provided the timely strike, dispatching Ravi Bishnoi to consecutive sixes to amass 19 runs from the over.
Following Dube's dismissal in the 15th over, de Villiers finally joined Kohli for the late assault, but which was eventually provided by Morris.
