Virat Kohli's brilliance and the finishing touches from Dinesh Karthik and Mahipal Lomror led Royal Challengers Bengaluru to their maiden win of IPL 2024. They chased down the target of 177 in the final over with four wickets in hand at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
Virat Kohli turned on his beast mode as he looked in brilliant touch during his stroke-filled 77-run knock. Kohli's outing was laced with 11 boundaries and two sixes as he held the hosts in a solidly during the run-chase. While the rest of his partners could not do much, he carried the team with his stroke-filled knock.
The former RCB captain got to his 92nd T20 fifty and his 100th fifty-plus score in 31 balls. He was quick to get off the blocks as he smashed Sam Curran for four boundaries in the first over itself. He continued his work with three more boundaries in the fourth over. he continued going well after the powerplay too with some boundaries and good running between the wicket. In the 16th over, little after he hit Harshal Patel for two back-to-back fours, the 35-year-old departed after he sliced one to deep backward point. His wicket saw, Curran getting Anuj Rawat in the next over and the contest opened up.
But the designated finisher Karthik and impact sub Lomror were cool as a cucumber at the death as they manoeuvred the chase. When Kohli departed, RCB still needed 47 off the final 24 balls. Even though, Curran got Anuj Rawat in the next over, Karthik and Lomror joined hands to put up a show. They took Curran for two boundaries, before collecting 13 runs each in the next overs of Arshdeep and Harshal to bring the equation down to 10 in the final over.
Arshdeep might have banked himself to defend it but Karthik scooped him on the first ball and then smashed one down the ground on the second legal ball to take RCB home.
Punjab Kings made 176 batting first. Shikhar Dhawan was rock solid at the top of the order with his 37-ball 45, while there were some contributions from Prabhsimran, Sam Curran and Jitesh Sharma. Notably, Shashank Singh's eight-ball 21 powered the Kings to over 170.
