IPL 9, Match 44 Review: Tons from Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers help RCB thrash Lions

The Gujarat Lions took on the Royal Challengers Bangalore at Bengaluru. For the Royal Challengers Bangalore, the match was a do-or-die game. A defeat from here on would have only meant RCB crashing out of the race for the playoffs. On the other hand, the Lions were just a win away from the playoffs berth.

RCB had come into the match having lost their previous match at the same venue against the Mumbai Indians. The Gujarat Lions were on a winning high, after having beaten the Kolkata Knight Riders at Kolkata.

It was a belligerent partnership by AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli that was the difference between the two sides on the night. The marvel that these two gentlemen showed on the crease were nowhere closely replicated by any of the Lions’ batsmen. As a result, Gujarat Lions lost by 144 runs.

Virat Kohli’s rough run at the toss continued as he lost another toss and was put into bat by the Gujarat Lions skipper Brendon McCullum. Suresh Raina missed his first ever IPL match and was replaced by Akshdeep Nath. RCB played with the same team. RCB had a poor start as Chris Gayle failed yet again and perished on 6 off 13 balls after having faced a maiden by Praveen Kumar.

The maiden was perhaps the only bright spot for the Lions in the match. Coming to bat after the early dismissal of Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers took very little time to settle at the crease. Taking special liking to the Gujarat Lions bowlers, he bludgeoned the pacers and the spinners alike. He took just 25 balls to reach his half-century and took the role of the aggressor. Virat Kohli happily played the second fiddle to the South African who was on absolute carnage mode. Kohli and de Villiers soon brought up their century run stand.

In walked Praveen Kumar to bowl the 16th over and AB smacked him for 23 runs in the over and in the process reached his 3rd IPL century and 2nd for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. His century came off just 43 balls. AB and Kohli put on 200 run stand for the 2nd wicket in just 90 balls. Nobody had given Kohli a chance to hit a century too, but it turned out be one perfect evening for the RCB batting. Kohli hammered 30 runs including 4 sixes in the penultimate over by Shivil Kaushik to reach 95. It was the final over when Kohli hammered two maximums to bring his century, his third of this season!

Kohli was dismissed in the last over on 109 off 55 balls with 5 fours and 8 sixes. Shane Watson walked in for the last ball of the innings but was out caught behind. AB de Villiers, on the other hand, clobbered an unbeaten 129 off just 52 balls with 10 fours and 12 sixes to take RCB’s total to 248/3 by the end of 20 overs.

The Gujarat Lions wanted their openers, Dwayne Smith and Brendon McCullum, to fire to give themselves any chance of overhauling this score. However, the Lions openers seemed to be playing on a different surface. Dwayne Smith was cleaned up by Sreenath Arvind in 7. McCullum (11) perished in his attempt to clear long-on and was caught off the bowling of Yuzvendra Chahal. Dinesh Karthik (2) and Ravindra Jadeja (21) were dismissed on successive deliveries by Chris Jordan in the 7th over. Dwayne Bravo was trapped on the back foot by Chahal. By the end of 8th over, half the side was back in the dugout with 48 runs on the board.

Aaron Finch was joined by Akshdeep Nath at the crease. Nath didn’t trouble the scorers either and was bowled by Chahal to become his 3rd victim. Chahal ended with figures of 3/19, his best in his IPL career. Chris Jordan disturbed the wooden work of Praveen Kumar and Dhawal Kulkarni as Lions stuttered on 74/8 in the 13th over. Finch continued to bat along on the other end. His resistance came to an end in the 19th over when Sachin Baby bagged two wickets in two balls to bundle out the Gujarat Lions. Finch top-scored for the Lions with 37 off 38 balls.

Brief Scores:

Royal Challengers Bangalore 248/3 in 20 overs (AB de Villiers 129, P Kumar 2/45)

Gujarat Lions 104/10 in 18.3 overs (Finch 37, Jordan 4/11)

Player of the match – AB de Villiers

Also, read – Stats: Virat Kohli becomes the first player to score 3 tons in a single edition of IPL