Gujarat Titans entered the Chinnaswamy Stadium hoping to get their campaign back on track after a tragic defeat against Mumbai Indians at their home ground, Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. After playing six matches this season, they have managed to win three matches and lose the same number of games. A win here would have put them at par with teams like RCB and SRH.
On the other hand, Royal Challengers Bangalore will be looking to register a win by playing their last match in front of the home crowd at their home ground in Chinnaswamy. Their next two home matches are to be played in Raipur. Also, RCB are looking to bounce back in form after their winning streak was once again disrupted by the defeat at the hands of Delhi Capitals.
RCB’s most experienced cricketer has done it once again as Virat Kohli inspires them to chase another spectacular target in Chinnaswamy. He was once again given the Player of the Match award for his brilliant innings of 81 runs.
Sai Sudarshan’s brilliant century takes Gujarat Titans to 200+ score
Gujarat Titans turned to Chinnaswamy after their batsmen struggled to perform well against Mumbai Indians on their home ground. The entire team was out with just 100 runs on the board, but this time Sai Sudarshan’s intentions were very different from the beginning.
Despite a slow start, Sudarshan carried his innings forward with some brilliant shots, especially from the final over of the powerplay, and added 128 runs for the first wicket with the captain.
After scoring a century, he was dismissed and it was left to the middle-order batsmen to take it to a big score. However, Washington Sundar struggled, and Jason Holder was allowed back at the back end quite late, due to which the Titans were unable to score more than 205 on the board by the end of their 20 overs.
Gujarat Titans had to face defeat due to Virat Kohli’s exclusion.
RCB were chasing the second-highest score in the history of the competition, and they successfully chased the massive target even in the absence of Phil Salt. Virat Kohli was dismissed by Washington Sundar for a duck and then he never looked back.
With a century partnership between Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal and tremendous run-scoring, they took RCB to the brink of a big win. Kohli has always remained a chessmaster throughout his career.
Kohli’s stunning innings, some impressive performances from Devdutt Padikkal and Krunal Pandya’s finishing touch helped RCB chase down their second-highest target in IPL history. This also became RCB’s 50th win at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
We have to assess the circumstances from the beginning- Virat Kohli
“We had to assess the conditions early on. We were just one partnership away. We wanted to try and analyse. Padikkal has done that twice this season. It’s quite rare to be honest. His innings was the clear difference. I was trying to stay in the game. That partnership was a game changer,” said Virat Kohli, who praised Padikkal’s brilliant performance.
“Our bowlers did a fantastic job. The spinners were not able to hold on. Once you get a grip on the conditions, you back yourself. The message was very clear. We had to go for it. We had no doubts.”
“Body language comes from confidence. We have guys who can hurt the bowlers. We have cricket talent like Krunal. You can see that in his bowling. The combination gives us a lot of confidence. We have depth and confidence in the group,” he said.
On the last game at Chinnaswamy, Virat Kohli said, “We are happy to play here, it is a special place to play cricket. It was great to play at home and win four games. It is a great start.”
Also read: In the RCB vs GT match, Washington Sundar dropped the catch of Virat Kohli on his very first ball.
