Achi news desk-
Virat Kohli revealed his superb form at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru for Royal Challengers Bengaluru against Punjab Kings on Monday. The former RCB and Indian cricket team captain hit a 31-ball half-century to boost RCB’s run against Punjab Kings in the teams’ second match of IPL 2024. However, he was also stunned by a massive security breach as a fan cheated everything to go to into the ground. The person also managed to touch Kohli’s feet before he was nabbed.
Earlier, skipper Shikhar Dhawan’s pragmatism was the foundation on which Punjab Kings built their 176 for six as the Royal Challenger Bangalore bowlers found their bearings on a Chinnaswamy Stadium pitch that offered them a springboard bounce on Monday.
Dhawan (45, 37b), Jitesh Sharma (27, 20b) and Prabhsimran Singh (25, 17b) were the main contributors for the Kings after the Royal Challengers opted to bowl first on a green-covered track very much
For RCB, Mohammed Siraj and Glenn Maxwell took wickets each.
The Kings got off to a shaky start as Jonny Bairstow went out early as his outings on these shores, stretching back to last year’s World Cup, are now more barren than an Indian summer.
In the latest case, Virat Kohli took a close-to-the-body pull of pacer Siraj the Englishman inside the covers.
But from 17 for one the visitors found runs through Dhawan and Prabhsimran and tackled the field and the RCB bowlers with aplomb, milking 55 runs off 38 balls.
Dhawan wasn’t exactly smooth during his stay but showed enough diving to cash in on the loose goods, such as a length ball on the stumps from left-arm spinner Mayank Dagar that lifted over him for a six.
Indeed, the RCB bowlers, particularly the impressive left-arm seamer Yash Dayal (1/23), did well to tie him down with deliveries that darted into him from slightly short of good length.
Prabhsimran also flexed his attacking instincts from time to time, the most impressive piece being his flicked six off Cameron Green which sailed 90 meters over mid-wicket for a maximum.
But as the league blossomed, Prabhsimran tried to pull Maxwell but a weak top edge was easily scooped by the steamer Anuj Rawat.
Rawat soon doubled his number of catches as he was wildly beaten outside the off stump by Liam Livingstone off Alzarri Joseph in the last ball of the 12th over.
But the Punjab team suffered a heavier blow as Dhawan reached the next ball.
The left-hander’s attempt to lift Maxwell off the ground ended in the hands of Kohli at long-on as the Kings slipped to 98 for four in 12.1 overs.
It was not an ideal situation for Kings as they needed a few more runs on the board to give the home team a meaningful challenge.
They found Jitesh, who hammered Dagar for two consecutive sixes, and Sam Curran, who added 52 runs for the fifth wicket from 34 balls to push the PBKS past the inflated 150-run mark by a couple of beefs. hits from Shashank Singh, who carried Joseph for 20 runs in the final over.
But they would have liked a heavier scoreboard following their second win in a row.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
