SAVIOUR: Captain Virat Kohli came to RCB's rescue with a special innings
against Rising Pune Supergiants in Bengaluru on Saturday.
The captain's second century this edition consigns Supergiants to seventh defeat in 10 games
The mighty hand of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)
skipper Virat Kohli pulled the franchise out of the hole and to a
memorable victory over Rising Pune Supergiants here on Saturday.
Kohli
(108 n.o., 58b, 8x4, 7x6) steered the home side to its third win in
eight outings, while M.S. Dhoni and Pune fell to seventh loss in 10
games.
RCB needed something special to kick-start a
struggling campaign, and Kohli was the man to do it. During the course
of his stupendous effort, he became the only player to make two
centuries in a single IPL season.
The 27-year-old
carried his bat to take RCB past Supergiants’ 192-run target with three
balls to spare. With a flick to the square-leg fence, Kohli had made
amends for failing to get his team over the hump against Sunrisers
Hyderabad, in a similarly stiff chase a week ago.
This
time around, Kohli ensured that he paced his knock to perfection. He
did not start with a bang, but exploded towards the final stages of the
encounter. At one stage, RCB needed a daunting 89 from 42 balls, but the
RCB captain made the task look easy.
Rival skipper
M.S. Dhoni, meanwhile, used R. Ashwin for just the one over. Fellow
spinner, Adam Zampa, stated later that the absence of left-handers in
the RCB batting line-up took Ashwin out of the equation.
Put
in to bat, Pune rode on a 106-run second-wicket partnership between
Ajinkya Rahane (74, 48b) and Saurabh Tiwary (52, 39b). The duo came
together after Rahane sold Usman Khawaja down the river, leaving both
batsmen stranded at the same end.
While Rahane was
all style and grace, Tiwary took a more forceful approach. They were,
however, helped along by some shoddy work by the RCB fielders. One
sequence, in particular, defied belief. In the seventh over — bowled by
pacer Varun Aaron — the southpaw gifted two regulation catches on the
drive off successive deliveries. Stuart Binny and Sachin Baby both
failed to hold on, drawing a collective groan from the crowd.
In
Aaron’s next over, it was Rahane who benefitted. A leading edge saw the
ball fall between mid-wicket fielder, Watson, and the bowler, as
neither player committed to the catch.
Rahane went on
to record his sixth fifty of the tournament. His exceptional form was
highlighted by a back-foot drive off Parvez Rasool, who followed the
Mumbaikar outside leg-stump only to have it dismissed to the cover
boundary.
The RCB bowling, under much scrutiny this
season, failed to deliver once again. English paceman Chris Jordan, who
was expected to spearhead the attack, leaked 43 runs in his four overs.
Watson proved to be the exception, employing clever variations to record
figures of three for 24. The Australian followed this effort with a
13-ball 36 with the bat — a vital innings which cleared the deck for
Kohli’s launch.
RPS 191/6 (20.0 Ovs)
RCB 195/3 (19.3 Ovs)
Royal Challengers Bangalore won by 7 wkts
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