scored another hundred, a record fourth of the season, to help Royal Challengers Bangalore crush Kings XI Punjab by 82 runs, via the Duckworth-Lewis method, at the M Chinnaswamy stadium on Wednesday. The victory was RCB’s third on the trot as they jumped to second in the standings with 14 points after 13 games.
After a heavy downpour delayed the start by one hour and 45 minutes, it was raining sixes in Bengaluru as Kohli and Chris Gayle smacked eight sixes each to power RCB to a massive total of 211/3 against KXIP in the rain-truncated 15-over-a-side game. Kohli, who was playing with eight stitches after splitting the webbing of his left hand in the previous game, scored a magnificent 113 off 50 balls with the help of eight sixes and 12 fours, whereas Gayle clobbered eight sixes and four boundaries during his 32-ball 73 blitzkrieg.
Chasing a massive target of 212, Punjab skipper Murali Vijay started the chase positively, hitting two fours off the first two balls by Stuart Binny. But the pressure of huge total meant they needed to continue hitting boundaries every over and while trying the same, Vijay (16 off 8) was clean bowled by Sreenath Aravind in the second over after he hit a six two balls prior. Wriddhiman Saha then took the mantle of scoring quick runs after his skipper departed, and smacked five fours in the next 11 balls before he was trapped leg before by Yuzvendra Chahal in the fourth over. Saha contributed 24 off 10 balls in his short cameo.
After that Punjab lost wickets at regular intervals and in clusters to make the already difficult chase tougher. First, they lost Hashim Amla (9) in the fifth over and David Miller (3) three balls later to Shane Watson in the sixth as they were reduced to 54/4 in 5.1 overs. Punjab then lost three more wickets in quick succession, Axar Patel (13) hit a six and a four before giving away a catch to Kohli off Watson in the eighth, before Farhaan Behardien and Kyle Abbott fell for identical scores of zero to Chahal in the next over.
