BANGALORE, May 5: Rahul Dravid played a lone hand as Bangalore Royal Challengers were bowled out for a meager 126 in 19.2 overs against Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League on Monday.

The Bangalore skipper held one end up to crack a gritty 66 off 51 deliveries that included nine boundaries and one magnificent six before he fell in the 19th over to Irfan Pathan.

After three of his top four batsmen fell without scoring, Dravid stemmed the rot as he along with the young Virat Kohli strung a 54-run stand. And after Kohli fell in the 13th over, Piyush Chawla removed Misbah-ul-Haq (8) and Praveen Kumar (0) in a space of two deliveries and then cleaned up Zaheer Khan in his next over as Dravid watched his team crumble from the other end.

Dravid then clobbered three boundaries in the 18th over to reach his first 50 in the competition in 44 balls. And it looked like the skipper will lead his side to a respectable total when a superb inside-out hit by him off Pathan saw the ball sail over the extra-cover fence, much to the crowd’s delight. But Dravid top-edged the next ball to Mahela Jayawardene at third-man and with it went Bangalore’s hope of a challenging total.

The home side was unable to recover from the early jolts as Shanthakumaran Sreesanth (2-16), Chawla (3-25) and Pathan (1-13) came up with fantastic spells to put the shackles on the scoring.

Yuvraj Singh’s decision to field was justified in the first over itself as Sreesanth bowled a deadly opening over to set the cat among the pigeons in the Bangalore camp.

Sreesanth induced Wasim Jaffer to edge the fourth ball of the game to wicket-keeper Uday Kaul and then swung the next ball in to clean up Aussie Cameron White, whose first knock in the IPL lasted only one ball.

A misunderstanding between Virat Kohli and Jacques Kallis saw the later being the run-out in the fourth over with Bangalore in tottering at 15-3.

Kohli and Dravid batted with caution ensuring there were no further hiccups at the start as Bangalore lingered to 50 in the 10th over. Kohli trying to get a move on failed to pull off the attempted big shots as Kings XI kept a tight leash on the scoring-rate.

India’s under-19 captain got a reprieve when James Hopes floored a skier off Sreesanth’s last ball of the game but it did not prove costly as an ordinary shot off Pathan in the next over ended Kohli’s tenure for 34, which took 36 balls.—Agencies

Kings XI Punjab win