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“That is the shot of an emperor”, Twitter goes berserk as Virat Kohli finishes things off in style for RCB

Photo of Rohit Ganguly Rohit GangulyApril 2, 2023
2,134 2 minutes read

They say that Chinnaswamy is a bowler’s graveyard and as RCB returned home after a staggering 3 years, they were willing to put this age-old maxim to test and then come forth all guns blazing to put it to bed once and for all. Faf du Plessis won the toss and opted to bowl first, knowing that there will be dew in the second half.

The RCB bowlers paid back their skipper’s faith pronto as they crippled the Mumbai Indians top order without breaking a sweat, thanks to the fast-bowling duo of Reece Topley and Mohammed Siraj. Siraj struck the opening blow, producing that all-important mishit from Ishan Kishan as Harshal Patel claimed a simple take in the deep. Moments later, Reece Topley was celebrating the big fish of Cameron Green as he was outdone by an inswinging yorker.

Rohit Sharma seemed uncomfortable for a lion’s share of his brief stay in the center and eventually nicked to DK off Akash Deep. Suryakumar Yadav did try and build a partnership but Michael Bracewell struck the big man on his debut.

Karn Sharma had his say in the game too as he produced a couple of wickets in the form of Nehal Wadhera and Tim David. However, Nehal played an elemental role alongside Tilak Varma as the duo stitched together a crucial 50 runs stand for the fifth wicket. However, once Nehal’s wicket was in Karn’s bag, there was a flurry of further wickets to follow.

Teetering at 123 for 7, Mumbai Indians saw a young Tilak Varma take up the reins in his own hand as the RCB bowlers felt the heat in the death overs. With Arshad Khan next to him, he piled up a crucial 49 runs stand from the last 17 balls, allowing Mumbai Indians to pile up 171 on the scorecard.

Coming out to chase, the Royal Challengers Bangalore seemed to be in a hurry to finish things off and two of their finest batters and also two of the best batters in the current IPL ranks, Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli got their jets on in time.

From an array of exquisite strokes that raced past the fielders to taking the aerial route as if it was child’s play, it was the RCB skipper, who led the charge with a quickfire start while Virat Kohli played the perfect two to tango.

The duo knocked around handsomely as the Mumbai bowlers were desperately scrambling for a fire blanket amidst raining boundaries at the Chinnaswamy. The duo piled up 148 for the opening partnership that saw Faf smashing 73 from 43 balls, an innings that featured 5 fours and 6 sixes while Virat who started on a slow note, had thrown metal to the pedal with the hosts cruising away at will.

Here is what Twitter had to say about RCB schooling MI

After a well-constructed knock, Faf fell to Arshad Khan as he couldn’t time a skier while Dinesh Karthik’s effort to rock early was foiled by Cameron Green. However, that didn’t deter RCB from walking away with the bragging rights as Glenn Maxwell fired two maximums from the three balls that he faced while Virat Kohli dealt the coup de grace to help RCB across the finish line with 22 balls to spare.

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Photo of Rohit Ganguly Rohit GangulyApril 2, 2023
2,134 2 minutes read
Photo of Rohit Ganguly

Rohit Ganguly

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