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IPL 2021: Punjab Kings post 195 on the back of smashing opening stand between Mayank-KL Rahul

Punjab Kings opening pair belted runs on a true Wankhede wicket as they stitched a 122-run opening partnership against the Delhi Capitals.

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Mayank Agarwal brought up his fifty off just 25 balls | Photo; BCCI / IPL
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Mayank Agarwal's quickfire innings of 69 runs gave Punjab Kings a healthy start to their innings and helped them get to close to 200 on a better surface at the Wankhede Stadium against the Delhi Capitals in their third game of the 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). After a start they got, the Kings looked set for a 220-plus total, however, the trio of Avesh Khan, Chris Woakes and Kagiso Rabada, pulled things back getting a few wickets and stop them below 200.

Kings batsmen took full toll of Capitals' wayward and short-pitched bowling on a track where there wasn't much on offer if you are a bowler. Both the openers were severe on the debutant Lukman Meriwala.

Meriwala's first over yielded 20 runs which rendered the floodgates open and Mayank became impossible to stop. After which, every bowler went for runs. Woakes conceded two boundaries in his next over. The Kings got 59 runs in the powerplay and as usual, Mayank played the aggressor and Rahul was the more sedate one.

However, it didn't have an effect on Mayank who kept making the Delhi bowlers pay. Lalit Yadav, the part-timer conceded two boundaries, however, the game-changing moment came in the 11th over of the innings bowled by Kagiso Rabada.

Not one, not two, three sixes in that over hit by the duo and they accumulated 20 runs off that over. But, the partnership soon came to an end and it was the debutant Meriwala, who provided the breakthrough getting Mayank out for 69 runs off just 36 balls. But, the 122-run opening stand between the duo off just 76 balls gave the Punjab side a much-needed boost after they could score just 106 runs in their last game.

But after Mayank fell, Kings' innings just fell off the cliff as the slower balls started gripping in the surface. Rahul was unable to get the big shots and Gayle went back after hitting a six. However, it was Deepak Hooda again, who came to Punjab's rescue and bailed out an innings on the verge of falling in a hole to safer shores with a 13-ball 22-run innings ably helped by Shahrukh Khan's 5-ball 15-run cameo and took team's score to 195/4 at the end of their 20 overs.

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