For Royal Challengers Bangalore, the M Chinnaswamy Stadium was not a happy hunting ground on Wednesday as they tasted loss at the hands of Kolkata Knight Riders in an IPL 2023 match. On a batting paradise, KKR set RCB a 201-run target. The start of RCB’s chase was fine with Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis finding the gaps easily. Though the latter departed, the former continued his onslaught despite wickets falling in regular intervals at the other end. Kohli reached his fifth half-century of the IPL 2023 off just 33 balls. Despite RCB being four wickets down in 12 overs, Kohli’s presence meant that RCB were in with a chance.
However, on the first ball of the 13th over by Andre Russell, the turning point happened. Against a short ball, Kohli hit a pull shot as Venkatesh Iyer dived to his left to take a stunning catch at deep midwicket.
Watch – Game-changer: Kohli Departs vs KKR After Stunning Catch From Iyer
WHAT. A. CATCH @Russell12A gets the big wicket of Virat Kohli as @venkateshiyer takes a stunning catch#TATAIPL | #RCBvKKR pic.twitter.com/RNrIKSaqTs
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 26, 2023
Even Anushka Sharma was shell-shocked to see Virat’s dismissal.
— Guess Karo (@KuchNahiUkhada) April 27, 2023
Talking about the game, Kolkata Knight Riders conjured up spin magic after Jason Roy‘s sterling fifty to snap their four-match losing streak with a 21-win over Royal Challengers Bangalore. The English opener led the show with a 29-ball 56 as Kolkata Knight Riders batters fired in unison to notch up a fighting 200/5 after RCB captain Virat Kohli opted to bowl at their home den.
But the spin duo of Varun Chakravarthy (3/24) and rookie Suyash Sharma (2/30) created a top-order mayhem, before Andre Russell (2/29) broke Kohli’s resistance to restrict RCB to 179 for eight.
The win took KKR (six points; eight matches) up from the bottom-half of the table to seventh spot, ahead of Mumbai Indians on net run-rate. MI have a match in hand.
RCB remained fifth with eight points from eight matches.
Leading the side in absence of Faf Du Plessis, Kohli struck a 34-ball 54 and kept their hopes up in the 201-run chase after du Plessis (17) Glenn Maxwell (5) fell cheaply.
But all hell broke loose when Venkatesh Iyer took a game-changing catch at deep midwicket boundary to dismiss Kohli, off Russell.
He dived to his left and rolled over but held the ball firmly as Kohli walked back in disbelief.
With 86 needed from 48 balls, it was left for Dinesh Karthik (22) to keep up their chase but Chakravarthy had the last laugh when he had the veteran RCB keeper-batter en route to his three-for, and it seemed all over for RCB.
With PTI inputs
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