In a match between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Rajasthan Royals (RR), Virat Kohli proved his reputation as one of the best players of this generation. Kohli cracked the first century of the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. Despite Kohli's impressive unbeaten knock of 113 runs off 72 balls (his eighth IPL century), Rajasthan Royals won the match by six wickets at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on April 6. This victory propelled RR to the top of the IPL 2024's points table, with Sanju Samson leading the team to their fourth consecutive win in as many matches.
Riding on Kohli's century RCB posted a competitive total of 183/3. But Jos Buttler turned it all around with his unbeaten 100 off 58 balls to help RR chase down the challenging target with six wickets and five balls to spare.
Interestingly, following the win, RR took a playful dig at Kohli on social media.
Sanju Samson's RR took to X to take a jibe at Kohli. They put out a post which read:
“184 sounds good on a day when 200+ was possible.”
While Kohli's century was certainly impressive, it wasn't enough to secure victory for RCB. The spotlight ultimately shifted to Buttler, whose even more remarkable century dampened Kohli's performance.
Meanwhile, RCB captain Faf Du Plessis rued his team's defeat.
“I think we found the wicket tricky in the first innings. I thought 190 was a good score, think we could have added 10-15 runs max. Their spinners bowled well (in the middle overs), good decision by them to bowl first. With the dew batting got easier. Virat was playing well at the back end, with someone like Green coming in, you want to maximise those last overs. We tried to squeeze as hard as we can, but it was tricky to hit against the spinners. It was easier to hit the seamers. The pitch definitely got better, you could feel it, the ball was skidding along nicely. We were excellent in the first four overs,” Du Plessis said in the post-match presentation.
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Former South African skipper, however, also pointed out where RCB went wrong which shifted the momentum in RR's favour.
“I think that 20 runs over (from Dagar) took the momentum away and shifted the pressure back on us. Not bowling Maxwell was because all right-handers were batting, so went to the left-handed spinner initially. With two right-handers at the crease, went to the left arm spinner and later got the leg spinner (Himanshu Sharma) into the attack. There was no point of being defensive, we needed wickets. When we got Jaiswal out, I didn't feel the need to go to Maxwell. Fielding was average, it's something we have spoken about, we'll work and try to improve. Not worried about catches, it's about showing intensity on the field,” Du Plessis concluded.
RR will next face Gujarat Titans on April 10 while RCB will take on Mumbai Indians on April 11.
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