The irrepressibly brilliant Virat Kohli made a stylish, occasionally brutal 92 from only 47 balls to lead the Royal Challengers Bengaluru to a daunting total of 241 for seven after being asked to bat first in their IPL match against the Punjab Kings at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Stadium in Dharamsala on Thursday.
Kohli was at his imperious best with seven fours and six sixes and was on course for an astonishing ninth IPL century before slap-driving left-arm seamer Arshdeep Singh to Rilee Rossouw on the cover boundary who held a tricky, sliding catch.
Big-hitters Faf du Plessis (9) and Will Jacks (12) departed early but Rajat Patidar hammered 55 from just 23 deliveries (3×4, 6×6) to set the tone for the innings despite a short rain break.
Patidar’s efforts ended with an edged drive against Punjab captain Sam Curran to ‘keeper Jonny Bairstow but his momentum was maintained by Australian allrounder, Cameron Green, who belted 46 from 27 balls with five fours and a six.
Veteran Dinesh Karthik blasted two sixes and a four in his seven-ball 18 before driving seamer Harshal Patel (3-38) to Curran at long-on to continue the work of the top order.
Punjab captain Curran is just one of many high-profile bowlers to have endured a miserable tournament and his 1-50 from three overs continued the torment. Rahul Chahar (3-0-47-0) and Arshdeep (3-0-41-1) didn’t fare much better.
Neither team is officially eliminated – yet – but tonight’s loser will be. Both have won just four of their 11 matches so far and need to win all of their remaining three matches to have an unlikely, mathematical chance of finishing in the top four playoff places.
PUNJAB KINGS: Jonny Bairstow (wkt), Prabhsimran Singh, Rilee Rossouw, Shashank Singh, Sam Curran (captain), Liam Livingstone, Ashutosh Sharma, Harshal Patel, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh, Vidhwath Kaverappa
ROYAL CHALLENGERS BENGALURU: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis (captain), Will Jacks, Rajat Patidar, Mahipal Lomror, Cameron Green, Dinesh Karthik (wkt), Swapnil Singh, Karn Sharma, Mohammed Siraj, Lockie Ferguson
Source: eNCA
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