It is probably true that what distinguishes sportspersons from ordinary to legendary is their willingness to fightback from hardships and come over pain – it isn’t easy but it’s the ultimate test of mental and physical strength for an athlete. Virat Kohli is one such cricketer who pounders upon tougher the situation, better is his play.
| Royal Challengers Bangalore | vs | Kings XI Punjab |
| Date | 18 May 2016 | |
| Venue | M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru | |
| 211/3 (15) | 120/9 (14) | |
Royal Challengers win by 82 Runs |
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After 1 and a half hour delay to the beginning of the match due to rain, the overs were reduced from 20 to 15 and thus the room to play yourself in just wasn’t there – the striking had to take place from the ball one and more so for RCB considering that this was a MUST WIN GAME. Gayle and Kohli had a lot relying on their shoulders and boy did they respond.
Another mighty effort from the RCB captain in Virat Kohli – genius. stylish. aggressive. BRILLIANT. How can one aptly define Kohli’s class beyond exemplary! Kohli now has 865 runs to his name in the season and you never know; should RCB reach the playoffs and qualify for finals – the 1000 run mark isn’t much distant.
Gayle at the strike rate of 228 blistered through the Kings XI’s bowling attack making a 32 ball 73 but how often does Gayle’s hitting get outshone? Kohli’s 50 ball 113 at the strike rate of 226 ignited the stadium with electric atmosphere and it almost seemed impossible to get him out unless he GAVE AWAY HIS WICKET – and after playing an absolute gem of 113 the fatigue was visible on Kohli and mind you; he injured his left hand during the last game and he even gestured upon reaching his century to his left hand as if to suggest that no obstacle can stop him from achieving his goal – talk about attitude of a legendary sportsman.
211/3 in 15 overs is what RCB managed and it quite frankly seemed that Kings XI were pretty much well and out of the match already.
As was expected, Kings XI batsmen had the clear strategy of going into the middle and start hitting from the ball one; their captain in Vijay started out aggressively but the proportion to which this aggressiveness had to continue in order to make chances of reaching 212 in 15 overs was phenomenal and extremely hard to achieve.
Vijay’s 16 in 8 was followed by Saha’s aggressive 10 balls after which there wasn’t particularly impressive to note in the Kings XI’s batting – their final score was 120 in 14 overs for the loss of 9 wickets before there was another rain display but this time putting the final curtains on the match, Chahal was again impressive with the ball having grabbed 4 wickets giving away only 25 in 3 overs – RCB thus winning 3 in a row.
RCB is still very much alive in the competition and now it all comes down to their last match in the league stage which will be against Delhi Daredevils – another side that is still in the hunt to make it into the top 4’s.
RCB vs KXIP Squads for 18 May 2016 Match 50
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Virat Kohli (C), Varun Aaron, Abu Nechim, Sreenath Aravind, Samuel Badree, Stuart Binny, Yuzvendra Chahal, AB de Villiers (W), Praveen Dubey, Chris Gayle, Travis Head, Iqbal Abdulla, Kedar Jadhav, Akshay Karnewar, Sarfaraz Khan, Vikramjeet Malik, Mandeep Singh, Adam Milne, Harshal Patel, Lokesh Rahul, Parveez Rasool, Kane Richardson, Sachin Baby, Mitchell Starc, Vikas Tokas, Shane Watson, David Wiese, Tabraiz Shamsi, Chris Jordan
Kings XI Punjab
Murali Vijay (C), David Miller, Kyle Abbott, Anureet Singh, Armaan Jaffer, Farhaan Behardien, KC Cariappa, Rishi Dhawan, Gurkeerat Mann Singh, Mitchell Johnson, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Nikhil Naik, Axar Patel, Wriddhiman Saha (W), Pradeep Sahu, Sandeep Sharma, Mohit Sharma, Marcus Stoinis, Swapnil Singh, Shardul Thakur, Manan Vohra, Hashim Amla
RCB vs KXIP Video Recap
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