In present-day T20 cricket, a goal round 200 is at finest a combating whole. On the batting-friendly M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, such a determine additional shrinks in worth, like cash in an inflation-ravaged financial system.
On Friday, Royal Challengers Bengaluru confirmed it as soon as extra by coasting to a five-wicket victory — with seven balls to spare — over Gujarat Titans to file a fifth success this IPL and regain second spot.
Set 206 to win, RCB have been propelled by first-rate batting performances from Virat Kohli (81, 44b, 8×4, 4×6) and Devdutt Padikkal (55, 27b, 2×4, 6×6), with the duo placing on 115 runs from 59 balls for the second wicket.
That partnership would have been a non-starter if Washington Sundar had held on to a dolly at mid-wicket to dismiss Kohli off his first ball.
However as a substitute, a lot to the delight of the house trustworthy, Kohli indulged in some sensible strokeplay, along with his wristy sixes off Kagiso Rabada and Jason Holder standing out.
Padikkal gave one other glimpse of his evolution within the shortest format with some belligerent however elegant hitting. The 2 jaw-dropping flicks off Rabada and Prasidh Krishna into the gang have been the very best examples.
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Earlier, B. Sai Sudharsan scored his third IPL century (100, 58b, 11×4, 5×6), and he and skipper Shubman Gill placed on their highest opening-wicket partnership this marketing campaign (128).
The southpaw, after negotiating just a few testing deliveries from the deceitfully artful hand of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, let free with an uncharacteristically unorthodox scooped boundary off Josh Hazlewood.
The 24-year-old then slashed the Aussie for a six, scooped Romario Shepherd for an additional most, and cleared the boundary twice off spinner Krunal Pandya.
The extra pedigreed Gill was comfortable to play second fiddle, dealing with simply seven balls within the PowerPlay and 18 within the first 10 overs.
Regardless of being at 104 for no loss on the midway mark, Titans didn’t capitalise. 4 balls into the thirteenth, Gill was caught at long-on off Suyash Sharma. Sai Sudharsan adopted his chief again after being caught and bowled by Hazlewood after finishing a ton.
Suyash, Bhuvneshwar and Hazlewood conceded simply 17 runs from overs 17 to 19 to slam the brakes totally. Within the twentieth, the burly Holder blasted 17 runs, however it was not sufficient to upend standard knowledge on the Chinnaswamy.
Printed on Apr 24, 2026