Neither heavy rain nor the pelting hail might cease Virat Kohli (92, 47b, 7×4, 6×6) from mentioning his fifth fifty of the season and retaining Royal Challengers Bengaluru alive within the Indian Premier League playoff race with a 60-run win towards Punjab Kings.
Profiting from early reprieves, Kohli solid a 76-run third-wicket stand with Rajat Patidar (55, 23b,3×4, 6×6), and guided RCB to 241 for 7 earlier than its bowlers knocked Punjab Kings out of the playoffs race, bundling it out for 181.
On the HPCA Stadium on Thursday, the Kings opted to bowl in a must-win sport, however a sloppy present on the sphere allow them to down. With Kagiso Rabada unwell, teen Vidwath Kaverappa underlined his potential on debut, claiming the wickets of RCB captain Faf du Plessis and Will Jacks, after he was denied a dream begin when Ashutosh Sharma dropped Kohli on the third ball of the match.
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Kohli bought one other life in Kaverappa’s second over as Rossouw dropped a troublesome take. Even earlier than the bowler might come to phrases together with his misfortune, Harshal Patel put down Patidar (on zero). These misses went on to harm Kings.
As soon as the 2 batters settled down, they tore the bowlers aside. Kohli went after the pacers, whereas Patidar started with three boundaries off Harshal and adopted it up with three sixes off leg-spinner Rahul Chahar within the eighth over.
His glowing fifty — his fourth on this version — arrange a run-fest as just a few Kings bowlers conceded at the least 12 an over. Patidar then fell to Sam Curran.
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Regardless of the rain interruption, Kohli remained targeted and introduced up his fifty with a 4 off Liam Livingstone. He struck a flurry of boundaries and added 92 for the fourth wicket with Cameron Inexperienced earlier than falling eight in need of what would have been his a hundredth ton in all codecs.
Rilee Rossouw’s 27-ball-61 saved the Kings within the hunt. He solid a 65-run second wicket stand with Jonny Bairstow to assist the Kings to 75 for 2 within the Powerplay. However as soon as Rossouw fell to Karn Sharma, RCB bounced again with Mohammed Siraj and Lockie Ferguson claiming fast wickets.