For the second consecutive time, Royal Challengers Bangalore secured a victory in the ongoing IPL 2024 season, keeping their playoff aspirations alive. Chasing a target of 201 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday against Gujarat Titans, RCB appeared comfortable throughout the innings.
After the early dismissal of captain Faf du Plessis in the powerplay, Virat Kohli took charge, leading the scoring alongside Will Jacks. Jacks accelerated towards the end of the middle overs, smashing an unbeaten century off just 41 balls.
RCB completed the chase in 16 overs, winning the match by nine wickets. Throughout the match, Kohli and Gill’s friendship was evident, particularly during RCB’s turn to bat. Kohli playfully disrupted Gill’s leadership and joked with him by nudging his shoulder.
I missed them so much 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/56oamAObuc
— ☾ sara (@elysianlightts) April 28, 2024
Despite Kohli’s playful behaviour, Gill tried to stay focused, occasionally exchanging smiles and words with Kohli. Earlier, during GT’s batting innings, Kohli, positioned near the boundary ropes close to the GT dugout, approached Gill for a friendly chat.
Virat Kohli notched his fifth half-century as RCB defeated GT by nine wickets
Kohli maintained his excellent performance in IPL 2024 by hitting an unbeaten 70 runs from 44 balls, bringing his total to 500 runs in 10 matches. This includes four half-centuries and one century. It marks the seventh occasion he has surpassed 500 runs in a single IPL season, tying the record with David Warner for the most times achieved in the league’s history.
The standout aspect of Kohli’s innings was his impressive strike rate of 179.41 against spinners during the match against the Titans. He hammered 61 runs off 34 balls against spin bowling. Therefore, after this performance on Sunday, Kohli provided a compelling response to his critics regarding the strike rate debate.
“For me, it’s about winning the games for the team and there’s a reason why you’ve done it for 15 years, you’ve done this day in and day out, you’ve won games for your teams, I’m not quite sure that if you haven’t been in that situation yourself, to sit and talk about the game from the box.”
“For me, people can talk about their assumptions day in and day out, but those who have done day in and day out, they know what’s happening and it’s a kind of muscle memory for me now,” he said.
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