RCB skipper Virat Kohli produced a brilliant innings to help his team beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 7 wickets and exact revenge for their loss in the previous face-off at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium Tuesday.
Virat Kohli played a captain's knock to help Royal Challengers Bangalore script an easy 7-wicket victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore on Tuesday.
Kohli was a one-man army scoring a blistering unbeaten 93 off just 47 balls to take RCB over the victory target with 14 balls to spare.
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Chasing a commendable target of 162, Kohli made a mockery of Sunrisers bowlers as he singlehandedly guided his team to victory smashing 11 four and four sixes.
It was a sweet revenge for RCB who had lost to Sunrisers in a 'Super Over' two days back.
The match swung decisively in RCB's favour in the 16th over bowled by Amit Mishra after 'Strategic Time-Out' where Kohli smashed the bulky leggie for 21 runs. This included to straight sixes.
Virat Kohli scored a blistering 93 not out to take RCB to victory.
In the next Thisara Perera over he got another 16 runs to close in on the match and couple of boundaries from Ishant sealed the issue.
He had a partnership of 66 with Moises Henriques (7) for the fourth wicket but it was Kohli who was in complete control as he paced his innings in brilliant fashion.
The ploy to open the bowling with Hanuma Vihari failed miserably this time as Agarwal hit him for a four and six to get him out of the attack.
The local boy then pulled Ishant for a six over deep fine leg to get 15 runs from the over. But the youngster paid the price for being over aggressive as he mistimed a pull-shot off a back of length delivery from Perera which ballooned up for skipper Sangakkara to take an easy catch.
Ishant, however, got the big wicket of Chris Gayle (13) as he bowled one that moved a shade after pitching and the Jamaican nicked it to Parthiv Patel behind the stumps.
Kohli's first scoring stroke was six over mid-wicket off Perera. Along with AB de Villiers, he added 49 runs but the South African failed to clear the fence off a rank long hop from leggie Cameron White as gave a simple catch to Hanuma at deep mid-wicket fence.u00a0
Earlier, Cameron White and Thisara Perera's slambang approach during the final five overs saw Sunrisers Hyderabad reach a competitive 161 for six.
White and Perera added 80 runs in only 7.2 overs to take the new IPl franchise to a comfortable position. While White clobbered three fours and three sixes in his 34-ball-52, Perera hit four huge sixes and a four in his knock of 40 which came off only 24 balls.
The last six overs of the innings produced a whopping 77 runs as Sunrisers had scored only 84 in their first 14 overs.
The duo came together in the 11th over with the scoreboard reading 62 for three. They didn't take risk initially but created a launchpad for a furious assault on the RCB bowlers.
The turning point was the 16th over of the innings bowled by Moises Henriques that yielded 18 runs.
The two bowlers who came out unscathed from the Perera-White onslaught were veteran spinner Muttiah Muralitharan (1/23) and India discard Rudra Pratap Singh (3/27) who gave away only 50 runs in their 8 overs taking four wickets between them.
Thisara Perera scored 40 invaluable runs for Sunrisers against RCB.
The bowler who went for maximum was Ranganath Vinay Kumar who gave away 43 in his four overs.
Normally, considered as a safe bet in T20 matches, Vinay Kumar's length deliveries were sent soaring into the stands by Perera.
The start wasn't a good one for the home side as they lost Akshath Reddy (12) caught by Vinay Kumar at the edge of the circle at mid-off RP's bowling.
Parthiv Patel (20) was sent back by Murali who foxed the left-hander with a doosra. Sangakkara scored 23 off 24 balls before he was caught by Virat Kohli at cover when he tried to get a move on as Perera and White joined hands for a splendid partnership.
Earlier, Sunrisers Hyderabad opted to bat against Royal Challengers Bangalore in their return leg match.
Veteran Sri Lankan batsman Tillekaratne Dilshan was dropped from the playing XI with AB de Villiers taking his place. India discard Rudra Pratap Singh came in place for Karun Nair.
For Sunrisers, Biplab Samantray was drafted in place of Ankit Sharma.
Brief Scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 161 for 6 in 20 overs (Cameron White 52, Thisara Perera 40, RP Singh 3/27).
Royal Challengers Bangalore: 162 for 3 in 17.4 overs (Virat Kohli 93 not out; Cameron White 1/14). u00a0
Squad
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli, Mayank Agarwal, Moises Henriques, KB Arun Karthik , Ranganath Vinay Kumar, Murali Kartik, Jaydev Unadkat, Rudra Pratap Singh, Muttiah Muralitharan
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Akshath Reddy, Parthiv Patel, Kumar Sangakkara, Cameron White, Thisara Perera, Hanuma Vihari, Biplab Samantray, A Ashish Reddy, Amit Mishra, Dale Steyn, Ishant Sharma.
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