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On March 29, tempers did not flare at M.Chinnasway Stadium as Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) took on Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Many anticipated that Virat Kohli would channel what happened last season to perform against KKR mentored by Gautam Gambhir. However, the former teammates put an end to rumours of a rift between them during a strategic timeout. The video of the two sharing a hug was shared by fans. However, Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri had a hilarious conversation in the commentary box.
"Fairplay award to KKR for this hug between Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir," Shastri said while commentating.
“Not only a fairplay award, but also an Oscar award," Gavaskar said in response.
Kohli was the top scorer for RCB in a losing cause. He carried his bat after scoring 83 runs from 59 balls including four fours and as many sixes. His strike rate was 140.68. He helped RCB post 182/6 on the board after the KKR skipper put the hosts to bat first.
Venkatesh Iyer's half-century and valuable contributions after a blazing start from openers Philip Salt and Sunil Narine helped KKR beat RCB by seven wickets with 19 balls to spare.
Skipper backs Kohli
RCB skipper Faf du Plessis defended Kohli’s approach and said that the pitch behaved differently when they were batting.
“Strange one, first innings we thought that the wicket was very two-paced, you could see that when the guys bowled the cutters, back of a length, the guys really struggled. We thought it was a decent score knowing that it gets a little bit easier in the evening, there was a little bit of dew that came in. Looking at the way we batted in the first innings, even if you have someone in there, Virat was struggling to hit the ball just because there was lack of pace and the two-paceness,” the former South Africa captain said in the post-match presentation.
Kohli on top
With an unbeaten 83-run knock, Kohli snatched the Orange Cap from Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) wicketkeeper-batter Heinrich Klaasen. He has 181 runs from three innings at an average of 90.50. Klaasen is in the second place with 143 runs from two games.
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