Picture : Twitter / IPL
Having lost all their six matches, Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper by Virat Kohli finally managed to win their first match of season 12 of the IPl against Kings XI Punjab at Mohali .
Desperate for a win and playing fro pride , RCB skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and asked Kings to bat first . Chris Gayle batted the full 20 overs and scored an unbeaten 99. Narrowly missing what could have been his seventh IPL hundred . Gayle his five sixes and 10 fours . K L Rahul ( 18) , Mayank Agarwal ( 15) Sarfaraz Khan ( 15 ) , Sam Curran ( 1 ) . Mandeep Singh remained unbeaten towards the end with 18 . As Kings reached 173/ 4 in 20 overs
RCB owling figures read , Umesh Yadav 0/ 42 ( 4 overs) , Yuzvendra Chahal 2/ 33 ( 4 overs) , Moeen Ali 1/ 19 ( 4 overs) , Mohammed Siraj 1/ 54 ( 4 overs)
Chasing 174, RCB lost Parthiv Patel for 19. With the total at 43. But a superb 85 run stand between skipper Virat Kohli and A B De Villiers dashed Kings hopes of a win. Kohli was at his best hitting power packed 67 off 53 balls with 8 fours.
De Villiers too was in cracking form and remained unbeaten with 59 off 38 balls. He hit 5 fours and two sixes. Big- hitting Aussie Marcus Stoinis not out 28 off 16 balls with four fours ensured RCB got their first win in a emphatic way by 8 wickets . RCB reached 174 / 2 in 19. 2 overs.
For the Kings it was their second straight loss after losing to Mumbai off the last ball in their previous match. The bowling for the Kings were , Mohammed Shami 1/ 43 ( 4 overs) , Sam Curran 0 / 31 ( 3 overs) Ravichandran Ashwin 1/30 ( 4 overs) Andrew Tye 0 / 40 ( 4 overs)
The relief and the smile on RCB skipper Virat Kohli’s face after the win said it all. How much they needed it .
