A brilliant half-century from Virat Kohli helped Royal Challengers Bengaluru beat Gujarat Titans by five wickets on Sunday to clinch the Indian Premier League (IPL) title for the second year in a row.
Having restricted Gujarat to 155 for eight in the final, RCB reached home in 18 overs , thanks to an unbeaten 75 off 42 balls from Kohli, who hit nine fours and three sixes.
Chasing the modest target, Bengaluru got off to a fine start with Impact Player Venkatesh Iyer (32 off 16 balls) putting on a 62 runs partnership with opening partner Kohli.
But Gujarat bowlers, led by Rashid Khan (4-0-25-2), Arshad Khan (4-0-32-1) and Kagiso Rabada (3-0-44-1) broke the back of the RCB middle-order after Mohammed Siraj (4-0-36-1) earned the breakthrough, dismissing Iyer in the fifth over.
From 62 for no loss, the RCB slumped to 91 for four in the ninth over, still needing 65 runs off 67 balls.
But Kohli remained calm amid the chaos to guide the team to a memorable triumph, barely 12 months after the former Indian captain and the RCB ended their long wait for their first trophy.
Their second successive triumph, though, would not have been possible without the superb effort from their bowlers in Ahmedabad on Sunday.
Rasikh Salam, the right-arm medium pacer from Kashmir, was the star of the show, taking three wickets for 27 runs in four overs.
Salam was well-supported by Bhuvneshwar Kumar (4-0-29-2), who had an outstanding season, taking 28 wickets, and Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood (4-0-37-2).
Washington Sundar (50 not out off 37 balls) waged as lone battle for Gujarat as rest of the batters, including their prolific openers — Sai Sudharsan (12) and skipper Shubman Gill (10) — failed to find answers to the threats posed by the RCB bowlers.
But one man who rose to the occasion once again belonged to the RCB.
And that man was none other than Kohli.
In front of 90,000 spectators at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Kohli held his nerve, mixing caution with aggression to deliver another memorable night for Bengaluru fans.
The 37-year-old finished the season as the fourth highest scorer behind teen sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (776), Gill (732) and Sudharsan (722) with 675 runs.
“Stuff you dream of. Thought of this moment many times, wanting to hit the winning run. Felt really relaxed coming in. The team we have gives confidence to see any kind of situation through. Knew exactly what to do in the chase,” said Kohli who finished the match with a six off Arshad Khan.
Gujarat, the 2022 champions, fell short by at least 30 runs on what was not really an easy wicket to bat.
Gujarat Titans batting coach Matthew Hayden lamented the failure in the big game.
“Always hard to put it down to one thing for a season that’s so long. We have apex predators but couldn’t get going in the powerplay,” he said of Gujarat’s batting order, which managed just 45 runs in the powerplay.
The game was eventually won in powerplay as the RCB scored 70 runs in their first six overs.
“Told Venky we need to kill the game in the powerplay,” Kohli said. “There was total clarity. We had small targets and played free cricket.”
Source: Khaleej Times