It was a sigh of relief of millions of cricket fans across the globe who witnessed the Chase King Virat Kohli getting back his form and notching an unbeaten 72 off 53 deliveries in the match against Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the 15th match of IPL 2020 in Abu Dhabi on Saturday. Having secured an 8-wicket win versus Steve Smith & Co., the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) is now at the top of the points table with 3 wins in 4 matches, 6 points, and an NRR of -0.954.
Devdutt Padikkal registered his 3rd fifty in IPL and formed a 99-run partnership with skipper Virat Kohli for the second wicket.
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Virat, who had a dry run with the bat leading to this contest, gained back his back and though he paced his innings slowly with singles and twos, managed to put up 72 runs, comprising 7 fours, 2 sixes, and striking at a rate of over 130.
In the process of chasing 155, the 32-year-old Delhi-born managed to get past the 5500 run mark and reigns tall as the highest run-getter in IPL history with 5502 runs in 173 innings, averaging 37.68, a strike rate of 131.18, with 5 centuries and 37 half-centuries to his name.
Yuzvendra Chahal spun the ball in RCB’s favor
Earlier in the day, the Men in Red had initially conceded 27 runs in 2.3 overs but bounced back immediately and picked the crucial wickets of Jos Buttler (22), skipper Steve Smith (5), and the man in form for the Royals – Sanju Samson (4).
Royals’ middle-order comprising Robin Uthappa (17), Mahipal Lomror (47), and Riyan Parag (16) kept the scorecard ticking in the middle-overs. Following their departure, once again, Rahul Tewatia came into the action with his quickfire 24 0ff 12 deliveries, striking 3 crucial sixes. He was assisted by pacer Jofra Archer who contributed 16 runs to the total, hitting a four and a six each.
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Among RCB bowlers, Yuzvendra Chahal was the standout performer and was awarded as the ‘Player of the Match’ for his figures of 4-0-24-3 and dismissing the likes of Sanju Samson, Robin Uthappa, and Mahipal Lomror.
Off-spinner Washington Sundar was quite economical as he conceded merely 20 runs in his quota of four overs. While Navdeep Saini (1/37) got the wicket of the dangerous Jos Buttler who was smacking from the very delivery, his partner in crime Isuru Udana (2/41) got the wood on Steve Smith and Riyan Parag.
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Here are some of the top tweets that surfaced after Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 72 off 53 deliveries while chasing a target of 155 against Rajasthan Royals –
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