RCB vs PBKS IPL 2024: Karthik-Lomror stage victory act after Kohli kept Royal Challengers in match

IPL 2024 RCB vs PBKS Virat Kohli steers RCB to 4-wicket victory against Punjab Kings

What was expected to be a cake walk for Royal Challengers Bengaluru after the Punjab Kings innings, turned out to be a nail-biting contest at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru today (Monday). Hosts RCB managed to enforce a four-wicket win with four balls to spare, but the contest was much more intense than the final scoreline would suggest.

Chasing the 177 run target, the hosts were kept in the match by Virat Kohli and when PBKS looked to be back with a chance Dinesh Karthik and Mahipal Lomror pulled it off with a 48-run unfinished stand off 18 balls.

Third time not lucky for Kohli

Kohli punished PBKS bowlers hard after being dropped off the first ball of the innings, Jonny Bairstow missed an outside edge in the slip cordon. Kohli celebrated the reprieve with four boundaries off the next five deliveries. He had another half-chance as Rahul Chahar, airborne like a jaguar, had almost taken the catch at the mid-wicket.

The RCB chase revolved around Kohli as there was no worthwhile contribution from the other end. As he was guiding the Royal Challengers towards target stroke by stroke, Harshal struck to bring cheers to the PBKS camp. Harpreet Brar had a hand in Kohli’s dismissal, taking the well-judged catch at wide third man. The 5th wicket of the RCB innings fell on 130, 77 of which had come from Kohli’s bat with 11 fours and 2 sixes.

Kohli becomes the first Indian to have 100 fifty plus scores in T20 cricket.

The victory act

RCB still needed 47 runs off 24 balls at 11.75 runs per over after Kohli's departure. They had never come close to that scoring rate in the innings. Matter further complicated when Anuj Rawat (11, 11b) also departed on the same score.

Impact sub Mahipal Lomror, coming-in next, made the impact, starting with a boundary off Sam Curran and then hitting Arshdeep Singh for a six and a four in the next over. Veteran Dinesh Karthik reinvented his finishers’ touch when it really mattered for RCB. He went after Harshal, who looked in absolute control till then, to pull the match back for RCB. He led the victory act with the 10-ball 28* (three 4s, two 6s) and Lomror returned unbeaten (17*, 8b, 2 4s, 1 6s).

Rabada, Brar kept PBKS fight alive

Kagiso Rabada and left-arm spinner Brar kept PBKS in the match. The duo did not allow Kohli get the desired support from the other end. Three top order RCB batters – Faf du Plessis, Cameron Green and Glenn Maxwell, each a match winner in his own right – fell for an identical score of three. All early in the innings.

Rabada got the wickets of du Plessis and Green and then Brar struck in the middle overs with his left-arm spin to neutralise the Kohli assault. He bowled out Rajat Patidar (run-a-ball 18) and Maxwell to put pressure on RCB even when Kohli was firing on all cylinders.

Earlier, opting to field first RCB restricted PBKS to 176/6 even as 20 runs came in the last over, the most productive of the innings. Alzarri Joseph, who had conceded just 23 in his previous three for the scalp of Liam Livingstone, was at the receiving end.

Dhawan too cautious, too many dot balls

Skipper Shikhar Dhawan got off the mark with a boundary off the first ball. But he and PBKS were not allowed to maintain that momentum. He scored 45 of 37 deliveries, 12 of which were dot balls.

An over cautious approach and too many dot prevented PBKS from reaching the desired score on the M Chinnaswamy pitch, where 190 or above in the first innings has been the average winning score in T20s. Considering RCB’s strong batting line-up, anything under 200 appeared unsafe at that stage.

PBKS batters failed to capitalise on starts

But for opener Jonny Bairstow every PBKS batter got a good start – Prabhsimran Singh (25, 17b), Liam Livingstone (17, 13b), Sam Curran (23, 17b) and Jitesh Sharma (27, 20b) – but they failed to convert.

RCB bowlers, who were clueless in hurling bouncers against Chennai Super Kings in their tournament opener, appeared to have done their homework well. They used the short balls effectively to trouble PBKS batters – Prabhsimran, Livingstone, Curran and Jitesh were undone by bounce and shorter stuff.

Twin Maxwell strikes derail innings

Dhawan and Prabhsimran looked well set to consolidate the innings after the early departure of Jonny Bairstow (8, 6b). But Glenn Maxwell derailed PBKS with twin blows, first dismissing Prabhsimran to end the 55-run second-wicket stand and then inducing Dhawan to loft the first delivery of his next over, 13th of the innings, in the safe hands of Kohli at long off. In between Alzari Joseph had dismissed a dangerous-looking Livingstone, caught behind off a short, wide ball.

Shashank Singh strikes in last over

Veteran Indian domestic cricketer Shashank Singh went after Joseph in the last over, slamming two sixes, separated by a dot ball, and a four. The lesson for the other PBKS batter came too late in the innings, but it was good enough to provide the score some respectability, even if it were not safe at all against a team which had the likes of King Kohli, du Plessis, Green and Maxwell and Karthik in their line-up.