Royal Challengers Bengaluru pressed the self-destruct button halfway but a scintillating fifty from captain Faf du Plessis had enough torque to take them to four wickets over Gujarat Titans in their IPL match in Bengaluru on Saturday. Du Plesiss (64, 23b, 10×4, 3×6) and Kohli (42, 27b, 2×4, 4×6), who added 92 runs in just 35 balls for the opening wicket, were in the foreground as the Royal Challengers overcame a flimsy target of 148 , facing some nervous moments, most of them his own creation. The victory also took RCB to seventh place in the table, with eight points from 11 matches, and kept alive their mathematical chances of reaching the play-offs.
Du Plessis and Kohli dealt with boundaries as the home team scored 92 runs in the Power Play, which contained 10 fours and seven maximums.
Both Du Plessis and Kohli were stern on all the GT bowlers as the latter started the killing spree with two sixes from pacer Mohit Sharma in the first over.
Du Plessis was in no mood to play the helper role as he attacked left-arm pacer Josh Little with a run of 4, 6, 4, 4 in the second over that produced a total of 20 runs.
The Titans introduced IPL debutant left-arm spinner Manav Suthar, hoping to contain Kohli at least, but the move was foiled in spectacular fashion.
The RCB talisman showed his growing comfort against spin, smashing Suthar for two consecutive sixes.
Du Plessis reserved his punishing blade for Mohit, whom he charged for four fours in the fifth over as the South African reached fifty in just 18 balls before falling to Little.
RCB entered a struggling phase from then on, losing centurion Will Jacks, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell and Cameron Green in the last match between the sixth and tenth overs for just 20 runs.
Little (4/45) and spinner Noor Ahmad (2/23) were the main perpetrators as RCB slumped from 92 for 1 to 112 for five.
Ahmad soon defeated Kohli as RCB were 117 for six, but Dinesh Karthik (21 not out, 12b) was calm under pressure as RCB notched up their fourth and third successive wins this season.
Before RCB’s batsmen joined the party, their bowlers produced an immaculate effort on a supporting pitch to bowl GT for a modest 147.
There were some good partnerships – 61 between David Miller and Shahrukh Khan and 44 from Rahul Tewatia and Rashid Khan – but the Titans lacked that big innings or a position that could have given them a firmer control of the match.
In fact, they looked distinctly unable to accelerate even in the Power Play, as their top-order batsmen struggled against RCB pacers Mohammed Siraj (2/29) and Yash Dayal (2/21), who held their own at a marvelous level .
The fact that GT managed to hit just two fours in the Power Play offered ample evidence of their struggle and the accuracy of RCB’s bowlers.
The Gujarat team’s Power Play score of 23 for three was the lowest in the segment this season, and this was mainly due to Siraj’s early dominance.
He consumed an out-of-form Wriddhiman Saha with an excellent outswinger that the GT opener took to Dinesh Karthik behind the stumps.
Shubman Gill soon followed as his attempted flick on the off side of Siraj took the lead and ended in the hands of Vysakh Vijayakumar at deep point.
Green took the third wicket for RCB in the Power Play when he dismissed in-form B Sai Sudharsan, whose weak pull near the body was deflected by Kohli at mid-off.
Miller (30, 20b) and Shahrukh (37, 24b) tried their best to get GT out of the woods with a well-paced alliance of 61 runs off 37 balls for the fourth wicket.
Miller, who was fortunate to be bowled on 23 off Green by Karn Sharma, played archetypal power strokes.
He punished leg-spinner Karn for a couple of sixes – a pull and a loft over extra cover – but fell to the same bowler when a miscue was caught by Maxwell at deep.
But greater misfortune was in store for the visitors as Shahrukh, who dropped a little too far back to Rahul Tewatia’s soft drop, failed to beat a Kohli delivery to the non-striker’s end.
For the sixth wicket, Tewatia (35, 21b) and Rashid (18, 14b) added 44 off 29 balls, but the latter’s desire to be innovative against Yash Dayal saw the ball fall on the stumps.
Tewatia, who punished Karn for 18 runs (4, 6, 4, 4) in the 16th over, departed soon.
(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Topics mentioned in this article
This story originally appeared on ndtv.com read the full story
