After smashing a wonderful century against Sunrisers Hyderabad, Virat Kohli scored another magnificent ton in a do-or-die encounter with the 2022 IPL champions Gujarat Titans. The Team India batter scored 101 runs in just 61 balls, but couldn’t take his team past the finish line courtesy Shubman Gill.
After being put into bat, Royal Challengers Bangalore had a great start. The opening duo of Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli put on 67 runs in just 7 overs. However, the Men in Red couldn’t quite continue their momentum as they lost wickets at regular intervals. Kohli, the man for big matches had other plans. The right-hander went hammer and tongs from one end as he got good support from lower-order batsmen including Michael Bracewell and Anuj Rawat. With their help, Kohli took the team total to 197. Virat Kohli, who batted till the end, smashed 13 boundaries and one maximum.
Coming to the chase, Gujarat made sure they never got behind the required run rate. Shubman Gill, who is in a purple patch, was the hero of the chase. The young batsman smashed 104 runs in just 52 balls to take his team to victory. Gill, paced his innings to perfection to knock out Royal Challengers Bangalore out of the Indian Premier League.
In the post-match presentation, Faf du Plessis, skipper of RCB, was all praise for his teammate; Virat Kohli. He said, ” It was wet in the first innings as well, but there wasn’t a lot of grip in the second innings and also we had to change the ball quite a few times during the second innings. Virat played an unbelievable knock to give us a chance and thought that was a good score, but Shubman played incredibly well to take the game away from us.”
With Royal Challengers Bangalore not able to win this do-or-die encounter, it is the Mumbai Indians who took the final playoff spot. Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings, the table toppers respectively will be facing each other in Qualifier 1 which will be played on 23rd May at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. While Lucknow Super Giants will be facing the 5-time IPL champions Mumbai Indians in the Eliminator scheduled to be played on 24th May at the same ground.
Who will come triumph in the knockout phase? Drop your answers in the comment section.
