RCB vs PBKS: Bengaluru beats Punjab by 4 wickets in 6th match of IPL 2024
Talismanic batter Virat Kohli produced a vintage batting performance through a magnificent 77 while Dinesh Karthik blitzed an unbeaten 10-ball 28 to guide Royal Challengers Bengaluru to their first win of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 after beating Punjab Kings by four wickets. Yesterday’s RCB vs PBKS match of IPL 2024 took place at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Monday.
After the bowlers, led by brilliant spells from Mohammed Siraj (2/26), Yash Dayal (1/23) and Glenn Maxwell (2/29) kept Punjab Kings to 176/6, Kohli entertained the capacity crowd with a stunning 49-ball 77, laced with two sixes and 11 fours. He was fortunate to dish out another masterclass in chasing in T20s, after being dropped by Jonny Bairstow for nought at the start of the chase. But when Harshal Patel took him out in the 16th over, RCB looked in a spot of bother.
Chasing 177, Kohli began by edging without any footwork against Curran and Bairstow couldn’t catch the ball to concede a boundary. He would go on to drive Curran through covers twice and clip past short fine leg to take 16 runs off the opening over. Even as Kohli got the RCB innings off to a flier with three authoritative boundaries off Arshdeep Singh, wickets fell from the other end as captain Faf du Plessis mistimed the loft off Kagiso Rabada to mid-on and Cameron Green nicked behind off the fast bowler.
PBKS effected a slowdown via Curran, and Harshal Patel varying their pace and variations while Harpreet Brar bowled mostly in the length area and maintained a stump-to-stump line. But it didn’t have much effect on Kohli as he smoked Rahul Chahar over extra cover for six, before reaching his fifty in 31 balls.
Previously, a sizzling late cameo from Shashank Singh (21 not out) helped Punjab Kings reach 176/6 in an innings that never got going. On a pitch that had some help for the bowlers, RCB used the two-bouncer rule to good use by planning and executing the bumpers well to prise out the PBKS power-hitters, giving away only 48 runs in the last five overs.
Pushed into batting first, Shikhar Dhawan and Jonny Bairstow hit three boundaries collectively, before the latter top-edged a pull off Siraj to cover. While Dayal impressed with his frugal Power-play spells and not giving batters any room, Prabhsimran Singh got off the mark with an on-drive, presenting the full face of the bat for a boundary.
Dhawan stepped up by driving Alzarri Joseph twice for boundaries, before lofting and cutting off Mayank Dagar and Maxwell for six and four respectively. On the other hand, Prabhsimran sliced, whipped and heaved with ease to collect four and two sixes.
The 55-run stand for the second wicket ended when Prabhsimran’s top edge on the pull off Maxwell was safely pouched by Rawat. Liam Livingstone tried to shore up the scoring rate by hammering Maxwell for a six and four but ended up giving a top edge to Rawat off a short ball from Joseph.
RCB vs PBKS Brief scores:
Punjab Kings 176/6 in 20 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 45, Jitesh Sharma 27; Mohammed Siraj 2-26, Glenn Maxwell 2-29) lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru 178/6 in 19.2 overs (Virat Kohli 77; Dinesh Karthik 28 not out; Harpreet Brar 2-13, Kagiso Rabada 2-23) by four wickets
Ms Kalinga