Kohli and Karthik Lead RCB to 4 Wickets Victory Against Punjab Kings: A Thrilling Match Recap
At the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Virat Kohli masterclass and Dinesh Kartik’s touch leads Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) to victory against Punjab Kings.
Both teams’ bowlers gave it their all at a ground that usually yields large scores, but in the end, Kohli and Karthik’s class and experience won out.
Punjab Kings 176 for 6 (Dhawan 45, Jitesh 27, Siraj 2-26, Maxwell 2-29) were defeated by Royal Challengers Bengaluru 178 for 6 (Kohli 77, Karthik 28*, Brar 2-13, Rabada 2-23) by four wickets.
An intense pursuit featuring a Virat Kohli masterclass at a full Chinnaswamy Stadium. a suspenseful last round. A victory for RCB.
The Royal Challengers Bengaluru supporters received everything they could have hoped for from their team’s opening home game of the year. abundantly. It wasn’t without a fear, though.
The king of the chase, Kohli, had everything under control for the longest. He had the fans dancing to his music as he hit the Punjab Kings bowlers for a 49-ball 77 while chasing 177.
RCB was in a bind following Kagiso Rabada’s two-wicket burst in the powerplay, but Harpreet Brar’s economical performance of 2 for 13 saved them. The assembly fell silent. Would RCB end up becoming the first team this IPL season to lose at home?
Dinesh Kartik claims to be 38 on his bio. Indeed he is! However, you wouldn’t believe how much he moved up and down the pitch and around the crease. Karthik came in and blasted an undefeated 28 off 10 balls, including three fours and two sixes, to help RCB cross the finish line with four balls remaining when they needed 47 off 22.
Virat Kohli Special
However, it barely wasn’t.
With a boisterous crowd roaring behind him, Kohli strode out to bat and struck. Sam Curran managed to get the ball to leave his first ball’s tail. It went to short third after taking a hefty edge. Curran moved closer to the next ball, calling for a drive.
Taking the bait, Kohli gained a thick edge, but the ball moved too quickly for Bairstow to react, bursting past his hands at the first slip. Just the right amount of luck for Kohli. The following ball he blasted Curran over the covers, then clipped him past short fine-leg, and to complete it 16 runs off the first over, he creamed a half-volley through the covers.
As soon as Rabada entered the game, Kohli showed no regard for him at all, haring down the track and blasting him over cover. Next, Kohli faced Arshdeep Singh, who he hammered for three fours in an over as he accelerated to 33 off 15 balls—the most number of runs he has ever hit in the opening 15 balls of a T20 innings. In his first 15 balls, he hit eight fours. Both RCB and Kohli were absent.
Also Read: Virat Kohli’s 50th ODI Century
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RCB Stumbles in the Middle Due to Rabada and Brar
Rabada was first among the wickets. He removed Faf du Plessis for the third time in three IPL innings. After that, Jitesh Sharma made a nice low catch to stop Cameron Green from getting ahead. The actual squeeze, though, came from Harpreet Brar, who used his length to achieve it.
Thirteen runs in four overs, two wickets, and that was during Kohli’s rampage.
Brar bowled 24 balls, 16 of which were on a length. from a considerable height. In addition to maintaining a faster pace, he prevented the hitters from getting a chance to get underneath the ball. He was dismissed by two balls that were bowled at a length.
Rajat Patidar, exasperated at not being able to get anything away, returned to a flatter delivery in an attempt to hoick the ball to the leg side. However, he missed and turned to find his stumps in disarray. After that, Glenn Maxwell attempted to open the off side up, but an arm ball undid him, and he was only able to get an under-edge back onto his stumps. For four overs, Brar did not give up a single boundary. He actually only pursued one double. All of the other songs were singles.
The Finish
In T20 cricket, on the other hand, Kohli achieved his 100th 50-plus score. However, the needed rate was skyrocketing. After hitting two fours against Harshal, he fell short of the mark, his slash barely going as far as the deep third. After two balls were dropped by Anuj Rawat, it appeared as though RCB’s situation was out of control.
Karthik, however, discovered a supporter in the impact sub Mahipal Lomror. After clipping Curran past short fine-leg for four on the opening ball, Lomror hit Arshdeep for a six and four in the following over. After that, Harshal Patel leaked 13 off the penultimate over, and Karthik took over. Karthik hit Arshdeep for six with the opening ball of the final over, needing 10 to win. Karthik then aced the chase with a shot over the bowler’s head after a wide.
The RCB changeroom went insane along with the Chinnaswamy. However, there were also impressive performances during the game’s first half.
Pulling the Trigger on the Powerplay was Yash Dayal
In his T20 career, Yash Dayal had only participated in one match at M Chinnaswamy Stadium before to Monday. When he was with the Gujarat Titans, that was against the Royal Challenge of Bengal. He didn’t have the greatest of times, concluding his four overs with 1 for 39.
But Dayal was right on the money, day or night.
During the powerplay, he bowled three overs for just ten runs, giving up just one four.
After being caught for four runs on the opening ball of the innings and giving up two more runs to Jonny Bairstow, Mohammed Siraj emerged victorious. When Bairstow attempted to swipe at a length ball, he was met with a top-edge that shot straight upward. Dayal did not obtain wickets, but he did keep the opposition tight.
The duration of the Test match was what made the difference for him. In the opening six overs, he held the ball short of a respectable length 12 times out of 18, scoring just 4 runs with it. Although there wasn’t much swing available, he made sure to keep the ball as near to the hitter as possible and detected very little movement, which prevented the batters from having any opportunity to swing. In the first six overs, the Kings batting only managed to muster 40 for 1.
RCB Bowlers Were Economical Throughout
Not a single hitter for the Kings was able to turn a leadoff inning into something meaningful. Shikhar Dhawan needed 37 balls to score forty-five. Jitesh obtained 27, Liam Livingstone 17, and Prabhsimran Singh obtained 25. And as RCB continued to chip away, that harmed them.
Maxwell and Siraj both claimed two wickets in the middle over, and it appeared that the Kings would be unable to reach the par score—which is rather high at this location. Even though Kings’ score appeared a little low at the midway point, Shashank Singh crushed Alzarri Joseph for two sixes and a four in the final over. And that’s exactly how things worked out.
