Liam Livingstone made his return from injury in Punjab Kings’ 24-run defeat by Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League.

He made just two as Punjab slumped to 150 all out, attempting to chase 175.

Faf du Plessis scored 84 from 56 balls and Virat Kohli 59 from 47 to set up Bangalore’s 174-4.

The form of Du Plessis and Kohli has been crucial for Bangalore, with the former leading the run-scoring charts and the latter in third.

Former South Africa skipper Du Plessis has 343 runs at an average of 68.6, while India superstar Kohli has 279 at 55.8.

Kohli was captain of RCB for first time since 2021 since regular skipper Du Plessis did not field, which was pre-planned, because of injury.

The platform set by their opening stand proved vital as their middle order stuttered, with no other batter passing double figures as Punjab’s bowlers dragged back some control at the end of the innings.

England’s Sam Curran captained Punjab for the second consecutive game because of Shikhar Dhawan’s injury and bowled economically, conceding just 27 runs from his four overs.

But Punjab’s openers could not find the same consistency as Atharva Taide was dismissed by India seamer Mohammed Siraj from the second ball of the innings and they slumped to 43-4 inside the six-over powerplay.

Siraj finished as player of the match with 4-21 and a direct-hit run out, and was supported by Sri Lanka spinner Wanindu Hasaranga’s 2-39 as Punjab’s chase failed to fully recover, despite Jitesh Sharma’s 41 off 27 balls.

The win takes Bangalore up to fifth in the table with three wins from six, while Punjab have the same results but are in seventh on net run-rate.

‘It doesn’t make us an invincible team’ – reaction

Punjab Kings captain Sam Curran: “We bowled really well as a group, but Faf and Virat played well.

“I did not think they got away from us too much. In the end, we just did not bat well enough. There’s a couple of things with the bat that we might regret but we move on, the games come thick and fast, so it is about learning from this.”

Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli: “This win does not make us an invincible team, and the league position before today did not make us a bad team.

“Faf batted outstandingly well. We felt 175 was a good score on this pitch. I told them that was more than enough and all we had to do was be confident and hold the ball in hand looking to get wickets.

“We broke the game open right there and our fielding was brilliant as well.”

Warner hits fifty in Delhi’s first win

In the second fixture of the day, David Warner led Delhi Capitals to their first win of the competition as they scraped to a four-wicket victory over Kolkata Knight Riders.

In a low-scoring encounter, Australia’s Warner hit 57 from 41 balls as Delhi made hard work of chasing just 128.

Delhi started strongly, reaching 67-1, before Kolkata’s spinners triggered a collapse to 111-6.

But Axar Patel calmly hit the seven runs required from the final over and finished unbeaten on 19.

Delhi skipper Warner is second behind Faf du Plessis in the tournament’s run-scoring charts but had previously been struggling to score quickly and hindered by the poor form of the rest of the line-up.

England’s Phil Salt managed just five in the chase, while international team-mate Jason Roy top-scored with 43 in Kolkata’s innings.

The Knight Riders collapsed to 96-9 but were rescued by Andre Russell’s unbeaten 38, which included four sixes as they scraped to 127.

The wickets were shared by Delhi’s bowlers, with two for Patel, Ishant Sharma, Anrich Nortje and Kuldeep Yadav.

Delhi remain bottom of the table despite the win as their campaign started with five straight defeats, while Kolkata are eighth.