RR vs RCB IPL 2024: A Virat Tragedy

Jaipur: Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Virat Kohli plays a shot during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 T20 cricket match between Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Sawai Mansingh Stadium, in Jaipur, Saturday, April 6, 2024. (PTI Photo) (PTI04_06_2024_000305B)

Not everything, nor everyone, was in the pink of health in Jaipur on Saturday the 6th of April. In the pink city of Rajasthan, a centurion effort fell by the pitch, unable to stop the pink wave of Rajasthan Royals (RR) continuing with their victory march.  Tata IPL 2024’s top scorer, the leader of race for the orange cap, Virat Kohli, smashed an unbeaten century plus 13 runs but therein lay the tragedy of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) who still couldn’t win the match.

The former captain of RCB, Virat Kohli, has been in terrific form and yet his team is almost at the bottom of the leader board. The numbers defy logic. Virat now has 316 runs from his 5 outings, his average is 105.33 and his strike rate is 146.29. He has hit two half centuries beside the century against RR. At the same time, his team, RCB is currently ranked 8th out of the 10 IPL teams, having played 5 matches and lost all but 1. They have just 2 points on the board and a net run rate of -0.843.

On 6th April Virat batted through the RCB innings, playing 73 of a total 120 plus 9 extra balls bowled by RR, and apart from Captain Faf, with 44 of 33, no one stuck around at the other end to give him support. In the middle overs RR spinners kept Kohli in check not letting the momentum build up and RCB fell short of putting up a good enough total on the board to back up Virat’s 113 effort.

RCB and Virat’s tragedy continued when RR came in to bat, there were silly misfields, some of them involving Virat Kohli as well. Virat took a catch and pulled some ham strings before retiring hurt to the sidelines. RCB even missed running out sitting ducks like when both RR batters ended up on the same end of the crease.

At the end of IPL’s match 19, RCB fans must be wondering if top scoring Virat Kohli is an advantage that the team has or is it the ironic tragedy of a ‘virat’ let down by the rest of the Royal Challengers from Bengaluru not finding form to win games.