The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) with 170 runs for the loss of 2 wickets, managed to beat Gujarat Titans (GT) who made 168 runs and lost 5 wickets.
Virat Kohli, finally, managed to get out of his ‘bad’ form with 73 runs made off 54 balls. This is the highest score he has made in this IPL2022. This victory of the RCB team means that Sunriser’s Hyderabad and the Punjab Kings are out of the ‘play offs’.
This ‘half-century’ of Kohli this season was the so called ‘center-piece’ of the RCB team’s pursuit of 169 runs. Faf du Plessis seemed to ride on the slip stream of Kohli during this opening stand of 115 runs. Rashid Khan managed to get Kohli out. Glenn Maxwell, along with Dinesh Karthik finished the job with multiple boundaries.
Maxwell in the ‘Center’
The 1st contribution of Maxwell was a ‘spectacular’ one-handed catch that dismissed Shubman Gill for only 1 run. The 2 over’s bowled by Mathhew in the powerplay managed to get the wicket of Mathhew Wade. This lbw of Wade was frustrating for him. He asked for a review.
The Repair job by Pandya and Miller
The GT team was 62 runs for the loss of 3 wickets when Wriddhiman Saha was run-out by du Plessis. David Miller and Pandya managed a 4th wicket stand of 61 runs. Pandya was seen struggling to time the ball. He swung hard and sent his bat flying in the 10th over.
Miller seemed to be more fluent against the spin. He took Shahbaz Ahmed and Maxwell for 23 runs off 11 balls. His innings were cut short by Wanindu Hasaranga at 34 runs off 25 balls.
The ‘Kohli’ Show
The chase of the RCB team was given a jumpstart by Virat Kohli. He made 34 off 55. This innings of his were pure dramatic with the crowd in Wankhade with him totally. In the 3rd over he managed to pump Shami over his head for a 4. He continued hitting over the top. This was definitely different from his previous approach in the power play.
Luck seemed to have favored him this innings as he was ‘saved’ him multiple times.
Rashid of the GT team was sent into the attack early on, in the 5th over due to the early assault of Kohli. This did not stop Kohli and he hit him for a 4 and then went on to make his 50 off 33 balls in style. His first 6 was of Rashid.
Kohli managed to play out R Sai Kishore who was varying his pace and getting more purchase from this pitch. Kohli seemed to be all pumped up and celebrated the boundaries of du Plessis with a lot of gusto.
Rashid was sent for the attack so that the RCB team got some jitters. He managed to snag out Kohli and also du Plessis in ‘successive’ over’s. He tried getting Maxwell out by hitting on the stumps but did not succeed. Maxwell went on a spree of hitting boundaries and this closed the game.
