Royal Challengers Bengaluru 178 for 6 (Kohli 77, Karthik 28*, Brar 2-13, Rabada 2-23) beat Punjab Kings 176 for 6 (Dhawan 45, Jitesh 27, Siraj 2-26, Maxwell 2-29) by four wickets
Everything that Royal Challengers Bengaluru fans would have wanted from their team’s first home game of the season, they got it. In spades. But, it didn’t come without a scare.
For the longest time, Kohli – the king of the chade – had things under control. Chasing 177, he had the crowd dancing to his tune as he smashed the Punjab Kings bowlers all around the park for a 49-ball 77.
Till he didn’t.
His bio says he is 38. He is! But you wouldn’t believe that seeing him move around the crease, and up and down the pitch. With RCB requiring 47 off 22, Karthik walked in and smoked an unbeaten 28 off ten balls, with three fours and two sixes, to take RCB over the line with four balls to spare.
Yash Dayal puts the brakes on in the powerplay
But on the day, or night, Dayal was on the money.
He bowled three overs in the powerplay and went for just ten runs, conceding only one four.
Dayal kept things tight at the other end, even if he didn’t get wickets.
It was that Test-match length that did the job for him. He kept the ball short of a good length 12 out of 18 times in the first six overs, and went for just four runs with those. There was not a lot of swing on offer, but he made sure to keep the ball as close to the batter, and found just a hint of movement, not giving room to the batters to swing. The Kings batters could only manage 40 for 1 in the first six overs.
More to follow…
