On Monday, during Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s match against Punjab Kings at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, Virat Kohli displayed his elegant side. In the teams’ second IPL 2024 match, the former captain of the Indian cricket team and RCB scored a half century off of 31 balls, helping RCB mount a stronger defense against Punjab Kings. But he was also taken aback by a major security lapse, where a fan fooled everyone into getting inside the stadium. It is also reported that the assailant touched Kohli’s feet prior to his capture.
A fan breached the security to meet Virat Kohli at the Chinnaswamy Stadium#RCBvsPBKS #IPL2024 #ViratKohli𓃵 pic.twitter.com/cwmbioGp8d
— Vathan Ballal (@VathanBallal) March 25, 2024
Earlier, the pragmatism of captain Shikhar Dhawan was the bedrock on which Punjab Kings built their 176 for six as Royal Challengers Bangalore bowlers found their bearings on a Chinnaswamy Stadium pitch that offered them springboard bounce on Monday.
Dhawan (45, 37b), Jitesh Sharma (27, 20b) and Prabhsimran Singh (25, 17b) were the main contributors for the Kings after Royal Challengers opted to bowl first on a track that had a smattering of green.
For RCB, Mohammed Siraj and Glenn Maxwell took wickets apiece.
The Kings made a shaky beginning as Jonny Bairstow got out early as his outings on these shores, which is stretched back to last year’s World Cup, has now become more barren than the Indian summer.
In the most recent example, Virat Kohli caught the Englishman’s badly executed close-to-the-body pull of pacer Siraj inside the covers.
However, after falling behind 17 for 1, the visitors were able to recover some ground thanks to Dhawan and Prabhsimran, who skillfully handled the pitch and the RCB bowlers to score 55 runs off of 38 balls.
While Dhawan’s innings were not particularly smooth, he did display enough resilience to profit from loose deliveries. One such delivery was a length ball on the off-stump from left-arm spinner Mayank Dagar, which he lofted over the long-on boundary for a six.
The bowlers for the RCB, particularly the formidable Yash Dayal (1/23), did a commendable job of tying him down with deliveries that darted in to him from just short of good length.
Aside from his occasional outbursts of aggression, Prabhsimran’s most memorable shot was a flicked six off Cameron Green that went 90 meters over mid-wicket for a maximum.
However, just as the alliance was beginning to take shape, Prabhsimran attempted to pull Maxwell, but stumper Anuj Rawat easily grabbed a weak top edge.
When Rawat latches onto a wild heave outside the off-stump by Liam Livingstone off Alzarri Joseph in the final ball of the 12th over, he quickly doubles his total number of catches.
But the Punjab side suffered a heavier blow as Dhawan got in the very next ball.
The left-hander’s attempt to hoist Maxwell out of the ground ended in the hands of Kohli at long-on as the Kings slipped to 98 for four in 12.1 overs.
The Kings weren’t in the best of situations because they needed to score a few more runs to provide a serious threat to the home team.
The PBKS passed the 150-run mark thanks to strikes from Jitesh, who hit two consecutive sixes off Dagar, and Sam Curran, who added 52 runs for the fifth wicket off 34 balls. The total was further increased by a couple of hard blows from Shashank Singh, who carted Joseph for 20 runs in the last over.
However, they would have preferred a more substantial-looking scoreboard to celebrate their second straight win.
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